


Just a State of Mind

by HopelesslyLonelyWriter



Category: Call of Duty, Call of Duty (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Call of Duty: World at War, Call of Duty: Zombies, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Death, Gen, Mental Anguish, Nightmares, POV Third Person Limited, Post-Canon, Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-28
Updated: 2018-08-14
Packaged: 2018-11-05 20:05:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 70,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11020611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HopelesslyLonelyWriter/pseuds/HopelesslyLonelyWriter
Summary: Black Ops 3. Paszek, our player, has crossed the point of no return. There's blood on his hands, and those hands are stuck deep in the complicated matters of international politics, metaphysical demons, and a peculiar relationship that was doomed before it began. Kane simply does what she can to keep at least two of those things in check.Tells the latter half of BO3's campaign, and extends far beyond it.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story can also be located on Fanfiction.net. There, you will find more detailed author's notes, although they are not at all necessary to understanding and enjoying the story.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Paszek and Kane deal with the aftermath of interfacing with Sarah Hall.

He had gotten used to asking himself the same questions over and over again. It was a way to keep his mind up, to help him acclimate to what has happening. He always had an answer, even if it was a cop-out. He always had an answer.

“ _What are we doing here, really?_ ”

But this time he didn’t.

Fighting the NRC and the robots, that was normal. That was what he signed up to do. They were the bad guys. His perspective on that hadn't changed on that. No 54i ultimatum or DNI virus was going to convince him they were the good guys. There was always a reason to believe otherwise. Or, at the very least, a decent excuse to hold his conscious over.

He had simply seen too much this time.

They told him he would see his friends die. What they didn’t tell him, though, is that he would have to be the one to kill them.

Hendricks had been right, for once in his life. Hall was bleeding out, sure, but would she have died right there on the spot? He didn’t think so. She had one a chest contusion and a handful of small face cuts…Kane had gone through much worse a few days prior.

The interface was a mistake.

“ _Is this Hell?_ ” she had said. He knew it was Hell. He knew it was a place meant for nothing but suffering. A personal, scarring suffering. And he had to be the one that brought her to it. Maybe the virus, whatever it was, was the start of all this, but he let it happen. He _made_ it happen. He made Hall, his teammate, his friend, an innocent person, go through Hell. And then killed her.

It sickened him to his very core.

“ _Was it worth it?_ ” Hendricks had snarked, right after he concluded the interface. Hendricks must have known exactly what he went through. He had likely seen Diaz’s equivalent.

“ _I know where they are._ ” was all he responded with. He wasn’t going to admit to that smug face that everything went wrong. Not yet, at least.

The stone-faced soldier did his best to stay just that, stone-faced while in his chambers. But it just wasn’t going to happen. He sat in his chair and focused every ounce of concentration he had on staring at the wall and feeling nothing. But that wouldn’t work. He was feeling everything. He took all of his usual questions and found that none of them, not a single one, had an answer anymore. He knew now that nothing he was planning to do would fix a damn thing. He was mentally damning himself for his own actions, knowing that he, too, would soon find himself in Hell once again. But it would be different. It would be worse. There would be no escape. No merciful bullet to end it all. He would be there forever. The ghosts he’s made would haunt him forever. And the DNI would do everything to ensure it was as real as possible.

Then, he just felt cold.

* * *

 

She needed to hear what the hell this was for herself.

Kane knew that the interface transferred information. But how exactly did it happen? What was it like? Was it instantaneous? Well, she knew it was already; her operative was in an out in a second. But from the perspective of those involved…what was the process? A few minutes of conversation? A hours-long interrogation? She knew time could be crunched, compressed, in the context of a DNI simulation. To what extent?

Not to mention, she had other questions as well.

She also knew first-hand that the DNI procedure had a way of making its hosts considerably less…human. And not purely from a mechanical standpoint. She knew John was emotionally compromised when he chose to get the surgery. But after that, he was emotionally dead. Gone. There were no emotions. No feelings. They couldn’t be considered because they didn’t exist. They would only hold back the missions. Take away the focus from what was important. As if they were really worth casting aside just to make your next morally ambiguous covert operation a few percentage points more proficient.

It wasn’t a night and day difference. Diaz and Maretti were still at least half of their goofy selves post-op. Hall still talked and acted liked a fresh recruit. But it all still seemed reserved. Like a dial had been turned down a few notches.

Admittedly, she couldn’t speak too accurately for Hendricks; she didn’t know him very well at all before the surgery. Not well enough to get a gauge of his personality, anyways. But there was a clear discrepancy somewhere.

Kane had done her homework.

“ _Complacent, controlled, content. What more can I ask?_ ” That was what Hendricks’ commanding officer at West Point wrote on his final report.

Where was that to be found today? The week she had worked with Hendricks had been filled with screaming and cursing and this clouding sense of volatility, as if he could snap at any moment. It wasn’t even clear what he was more loyal to – his feelings or the mission. It seemed to change at random.

Of course, there was one example that served to put a hole in her theory – an anomaly.

Paszek.

Again, she couldn’t speak out of anything but his file; she had only known him for a week. His training dossier was standard for the most part. The evaluator had pinned him as idealistic, but added it wasn’t anything to worry about. Nothing more unusual than most other soldiers.

Paszek had made the call to stay quiet when the 54i were going to execute those civilians; he claimed it was not to compromise their objective. That seemed par for the course with regards to the DNI; staying on mission and not deviating for any purpose, ethical or otherwise.

But he had also done the exact opposite. He hadn’t just strayed off the path of his orders, he actively defied them. He had dragged Hendricks along to fight through literal legions of 54i by themselves, with no WA support, and hardly a modest showing by the SAF. Hendricks had believed her to be dead, either by a 54i bullet or fire, and pleaded that Paszek stand down and retreat.

But he didn’t. He did one of the most compassionate, one of the most… _human_ things she had ever seen. He ran into a burning building, one that was collapsing before he even entered. He mowed down no less than a dozen 54i. He fought off the their leader. All to save his handler, that he’d known for less than a week. It didn’t add up.

Kane knew that Paszek had to still be a real person under there. A real, vulnerable person with real, tangible feelings.

And that was another thing she needed to learn more about for herself.

* * *

 

A few hasty clicks of the keyboard and a faint shuffling could be heard after she knocked on the door.

He started speaking before he even knew was behind the door, opening it with one hand while using the other to cover his eyes and the bridge of his nose, seemingly out of fatigue.

“I’m sifting through some rather extensive intel right now, so unless this is urgent business…”

He removed his hand from his face, revealing Kane standing in the doorway.

“Oh, sorry…didn’t know it was you…come in…”

“It’s alright, I mean, if you don’t want to talk about-”

“No…no, I need to talk this through with somebody. Need to make sense of it all.”

He quickly paused.

“…and right now, I trust you a lot more than anyone else here…”

She flashed a brief smile. A subtle one, at that, but enough to show her approval of his statement.

He shut the door as soon as she was inside.

Paszek sat down on the edge of his cot, so Kane took a seat in the now-vacant computer chair, spinning it around halfway to face him.

She took a deep breath.

“The interface…what was it like? What did you experience?”

“You know the Siege of Bastogne?”

“Like, World War 2 Bastogne?”

“Yeah.”

He paused.

“We were there. It was a nightmare. We had to fight the battle again. She…Hall…spent time studying it while she was at the academy. So it was in her mind. And that was what the DNI did. It reached back, back into the darkest parts of her mind and threw it all at us. Like a nightmare.”

“How…how did you learn about Taylor and Maretti? Where they are?”

“Sometimes…the nightmare would stop. And instead of Bastogne, we’d be right back in Cairo. Right where we fought her. She’d talk for little bit…and then…then we’d go right back to the battle.”

“That…that doesn’t make any sense. Why wouldn’t the interface, the DNI…why wouldn’t it just give you the information and be done? Why go through the rest of Hall’s mind?”

“Because there’s this thing…this entity…this _virus_ in there. In the DNI. It was trying to kill us. It wasn’t just the battle , Kane…there were these wolves…and these machines…and these…horrible monsters all around us. We barely made it, and I…I…I had to…”

Paszek’s speech stopped being coherent. He just kept breathing in and out and in out…like he was unable to finish his own sentence.

“Slow down! What did you do?”

He shook his head.

“It’s okay, Paszek. You can tell me. What did you do?”

He shook his head faster.

“ _I killed her, alright!_ ”

It was the loudest she had ever heard him shout.

“I killed her…” he said it as if he didn’t believe it for himself.

Both of them went silent.

“Her mind…it was still hanging in there…but she didn’t want to live anymore. She wanted the nightmare to end. She asked me to do it. So…so I did….”

“I need you to know that…that wasn’t your fault.”

“But it was!” he got louder again. “I was the one that interfaced with her! I fired the shot! I did it! _I killed her_! Alright!?”

“You can’t blame yourself for that! I was the one that ordered you to interface!”

“I didn’t have to listen! I could have called in a medic! Gotten her healed! I could’ve asked Hendricks to do it, he was already infected with the virus...I co-”

“ _Infected_? The…the virus?” she stumbled over her words. “Don’t tell me that-”

“It was at the Coalescence Hypocenter. It’s what made Taylor’s team go AWOL. When Hendricks interfaced with Diaz, it transferred the virus. And when I interfaced with Hall…”

“So…you…you’re infected, then?” she quickly exhaled out of disbelief. “But you seem…so normal…”

“It works slow. Takes time. You can probably tell what it’s done to Hendricks already. I don’t know how long we have until be become…like them.”

A beat.

“The thing we have to worry about is…how do we get this thing out of my head?” How do we do it?”

“Well, once we catch Taylor…it seems like he has all of the answers.”

"But what if we don't? What if we never catch Taylor? Even if we do, what if he doesn't want to talk? Or interfacing makes the problem worse?"

“So this thing is inside your DNI?”

“As far as I know, yes.”

“If that’s the case…then, in the very worst case, we could purge your DNI. A purge erases everything located there. Anything that’s lurking there would be eradicated. But…we don’t want to have to do that…”

“And why not?”

“From the moment you got the DNI installed…it started compiling information. Not just the data that they uploaded to you...but everything you saw. Everything you experienced. To wipe the DNI would be…to wipe your memories.”

He looked expressionless.

“I got this five years ago. Five…five years…”

A pause.

“There…there are some things I wish I could unsee, but…to lose everything I’ve learned, everything I’ve done? I can’t let it come to that.”

Paszek was holding himself back. He knew he wanted to say more. He knew he wanted to tell her. But he also knew it wasn’t right. They were still in the middle of the war. How could anything as meaningless as his own feelings hold any value?

On second thought, no. This is what he had been doing for years now. Suppressing all his thoughts so he would look strong. That's what the WA wanted. Maybe that's why they gave him the DNI.

He wasn't sure how much longer he would be able to think for himself, and for his friends, for that matter. He had to make it count.

“Do you know why I ran into that burning building?”

“What?”

“The safehouse. When it was burning, do you know why I went in?”

“Well…you knew I was still alive, right? No man left behind. That's the protocol."

“No. I didn’t no.” he shook his head once more. “In fact, just about everything pointed to you being dead…your comms were down, there was a huge explosion not two minutes before…”

He paused.

“Hendricks said we needed to get out of Singapore ASAP. He said that you were dead already…that there wasn’t even a chance. And you know what?”

Paszek looked right at her.

“A part of me believed him. Wanted to turn around and go home.”

Another pause.

“But…but another part of me didn’t. Part of me couldn’t function…couldn’t _exist_ knowing that you were dead. It was a rush…I felt so many things at once…fear, anxiety, anger, passion, and even…even _love_. And it…it was all for you. All of it was for you.”

He looked back down at the floor.

“There are some things that…I can bear to forget. My training, Taylor’s team, Hendricks, whatever. But…but everything about you, everything that I…feel about you…I don’t think I can lose that. I can’t lose that.”

Oh God. He felt like shit. That was bad. That was stupid. He covered his face his with hands. That was really fucking stupid. He was going to have to apologize for that later.

Kane was a bit taken aback. She had her suspicions that Paszek was interested in her…but to that extent? It was heartfelt, that was for certain….the cold atmosphere of the CIA, and the much colder world around it…it didn’t exactly encourage this kind of emotion. So she knew he wasn’t messing with her. Kane felt a certain degree of sentiment for Paszek, yes…but it was perhaps best described as a marriage between respect and camaraderie. Were there hints of romance in her thoughts? Of course there were – they were both attractive and intelligent people. It was only natural. But did she really mean anything by it? That was the question she dared not ask until this point.

But Kane was quite done with the looming silence between the two. She needed a way to lift his spirits.

“If there’s a part of you that’s holding on…then I’m glad that part is still there.”

He lifted his head up.

“I know what you’re going through can’t be easy. It’s not for me…it’s definitely not for Hendricks…”

She took another breath.

“If…if I’m the reason you’re still you…then I’ll be damned if I don’t do everything to keep you like that.”

Paszek's mouth shaped into a relieved smile.

“You saved my life. It’s only fair that I save yours, you know?”

Kane stood up and held her arms out. Paszek slowly arched out of his cot and walked directly into her embrace. The hug was loose at first, but she soon pulled him closer. After a few seconds, Paszek reciprocated and wrapped his arms around her.

It was easy to forget things while in the embrace of another, Paszek found.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Taylor and Maretti hiding out on an NRC-backed aquifer, Paszek and Kane are part of the assault to apprehend them.

Paszek laid down soon after their conversation. Kane imagined that he had to be completely drained.

“ _There were these…horrible monsters…_ ” he had said. Kane wondered just how real his experience was. He described it with such vigor and…disdain. Did Paszek fear for his own life, even from something that wasn’t real? 

No. She immediately dismissed that. It was just like a dream, she reasoned. In a nightmare, you stop being scared once you realize there’s nothing to be scared of. In a dream, death was meaningless. Falling off of a building didn’t kill you, it woke you up.

This opened up a rabbit’s hole of questions for Kane. What was dreaming like with a DNI? Hyper-realistic? Impossible to break out of on your own? Maybe it was best that she didn’t know.

Kane checked her watch; it was 2 AM. As the weight of today’s (well, yesterday’s, technically) work fell upon her, she yawned. She found herself in a rather sticky situation. Leaving a male subordinate’s room in the middle of the night would draw the worst sort of suspicion. But the padded felt chair she sat in was getting more and more comfortable. She let out a quiet sigh. Paszek better be able to cover for her tomorrow morning.

She slumped back a bit in the chair, and let herself drift to sleep.

Upon waking up, she found herself in his cot; Paszek was lying on the floor, stiffly positioned on his side. His eyes were oddly dilated, as if he were simultaneously drowsy and wide awake.

"Did you get any sleep?" asked Kane as she swung her legs around the side of the bed.

"Nope. Happy to see you did, though.” he winced as he sat up, and a few distinct popping sounds could be heard.

"I was perfectly fine in the chair..."

"You needed the sleep more than me."

Both of them knew that was a lie, but they warmly smiled at each other anyways. 

Paszek looked downwards and clutched the back of his neck, leaning his elbows on his thighs

“Listen, about last night…” Paszek trailed off. He knew what he wanted to say, he just had trouble saying it.

“Last night I was in a bad place…I still am, really.” he paused again.

“The things I said…about me and about you…they’re all true…but…what I’m trying to say is…”

He was stammering very noticeably at this point. Kane looked down at her feet, silently pitying her friend.

“I’m sorry.” he said

Kane slowly panned her head up, raising an eyebrow halfway.

“I let this virus compromise me. It won’t happen again.”

Kane took a deep breath. He wasn’t wrong. But they both knew there was something more to this. Something that they might be smart to fear.

“I’m sorry, too.”

She stood up, placed her palm on Paszek’s back for a brief moment, and exited the room.

* * *

 

_Mission Briefing for November 3 rd, 2070: Liaison Non-Commissioned Rachel Kane  _

_Intel obtained by Commander Paszek regarding the location of fugitives John Taylor and Peter Maretti points to a drilling platform approximately 2.3 miles east of Cairo. High altitude surveillance drones reveal unusually high heat signatures and Egyptian Army scouts confirm an NRC presence on the aquifer. Expect large numbers of anti-aircraft personnel and drones._

_The priority for all CIA operatives is to subdue Specialists Taylor and Maretti. Capture or a confirmed kill is required on both. Exercise extreme caution when dealing with the fugitives, they have received extensive training and have a vast knowledge of the Cyber Soldier program._

_CIA and Egyptian Army forces are to assault the base from the air until it is safe for the CIA strike team to land on the top deck. Take out any and all hostiles, but exercise caution around the support areas of the platform; destroying the entire aquifer is not an option. Once we have boots on the ground, all air support decisions will be left to Lieutenant Khalil. Commander Hendricks will lead troops on deck._

_It is of upmost importance that any operatives with a DNI do not facilitate an interface with any hostiles. We have reason to believe that Taylor and Maretti have somehow tampered with their implants, and the effects of this on another DNI host are unknown as of now._

_If this loose end can be tied up, the WA will gain a much needed boost in Africa. Failure is not an option._

* * *

 Take off was in an hour. Paszek ran through his list one last time, just to be sure.

Fuel in the tank? Check.

Missiles armed? Check.

Minigun turrets operational? Check.

It was routine. Like he had done a million times.

The strange part was that he hadn’t. Paszek had never flown a plane before. He hadn’t spent a minute in a cockpit, he hadn’t thumbed through thousands of pages of technical manuals, and with the exception of a very brief course at Ranger training, he hadn’t learned much at all about aeronautics. Well, that all depended on the true definition of “learned”.

When a 17-year Air Force veteran decided to finally call it quits, the US Department of Information made him an enticing deal. He would be tax-exempt for life and have his children’s schooling paid for in full if he got a DNI implant. They made the same offer to hundreds of others. Soldiers, scientists, doctors, historians, athletes: a handful of experts in every profession.

The reason? Simple. They needed people to absorb knowledge quicker. Understand quantum physics in hours, learn a language in a matter of days, increase their top speed in only a week.

 The DNI can access and sort through all the data that is contained in the human mind. And not just the basics. Every neuron that is active in the brain or that ever was, can be studied, analyzed, transferred to a computer and replicated with astonishing accuracy.

Knowledge. Memories. Emotions. All digitized for convenience. They started human trials not two weeks after their breakthrough.

All of the new initiates into the Cyber Soldier Program had a modest amount of cherry-picked data implanted with their DNI. The Air Force vet’s piloting expertise, a medic’s knowledge of first-aid, even a mechanical scientist’s understanding of the inner workings of firearms all became standard-issue.

Of course, there was a limit to how much could be uploaded; the human mind has its limits. Paszek now was able to fly a plane, but he couldn’t perform any immensely intricate maneuvers nor could he repair any relatively obscure defects. He could cauterize a wound and administer CPR, but there were still situations he wasn’t fit to handle. Checking for wear on the inside of his barrel became second-nature, but he couldn’t always locate the source of a jammed weapon.

These data uploads were supposed to be limited to just the raw information; objective and unable to be compromised. But the many facets of the human mind are not just contained to a certain sector; a person’s conscious thoughts and items stored n the long term memory, for example, are not always separate. As such, the transfer of data strictly intended to be of a skillful complexion would cause a bit of bleed-over. Shortly after Paszek absorbed the pilot’s aviation lifestyle, he found himself…thinking differently in certain situations.

* * *

 

_Mission Report for March 29 th, 2066: Commander Ignacio Paszek _

_The mission objective: to expel the newly-CDP-allied Finnish forces from areas surrounding WA energy plants in the North Atlantic was achieved, but the results were mixed. After taking out their on-board DEAD systems and capturing 2 of their officers, we placed explosive charges on their largest ship. However, an unknown malfunction caused the C4 to detonate while we were still within the blast zone. Our entire team was launched into the water. Comms said that secondary extraction would not be available for another 45 minutes. We untied our prisoners, and they did not seem eager to attempt escape (which was in all likelihood due to our bleak situation).My experience in aquatics was not as extensive as it could have been, but I was confident that my team and I could push through._

_At 0600 local time, I lost control of my flotation device and drowned. Let the record state that Specialist Joseph Fierro eventually got me afloat and took control of the mission after this incident._

_Upon waking up on US soil, I learned that my account of the ocean consistently merely of hallucinations. The rest of my team was able to swim to safety, with no injuries or complications. A Coalescence-contracted doctor told me that my visions were not uncommon, but that the severity of mine was abnormal. 1_

_ 1 _ _CLASSIFIED FOOTNOTE: RESERVED FOR DESIGNATION #20000001: Sebastian Krueger AND SPECIAL CIVILIAN EXEMPTION: Dr. Anthony Berg_

_Dr. Berg informed me that my hallucinations were likely the result of the imprinting of the DNI data from Dale Eastman, a former Air Force pilot. His journals cited nightmares of a crash landing in the ocean that persisted throughout much of his life._

_Is there anything we can do to curb the impacts of these imprints?_

* * *

 

Kane sat on a small crate near the outskirts of the tarmac. In less than 60 minutes, she would be en route what could affectionately be called a warzone.

They were expecting the full force of the NRC, which meant there would likely be a sizable fleet of automatic defense systems. A tech expert like Kane was more needed than ever for a day like this. It was refreshing for her. She had spent a good portion of her time in the CIA sitting behind a desk, listening to an earpiece, and rapidly clacking at her keyboard when need be. This time, Kane would be, in a sense, on the front lines; she was charging into battle and her support was all but vital to the success of the mission. That’s not to say she _enjoyed_ being shot at, but a bit of excitement, and yes, even danger, was welcomed in short bursts.

She wondered why Taylor had chosen an aquifer as a fallback base. On the surface, it was a pretty terrible position; the NRC was only dominant because of their massive infantry, a raised platform in the middle of a desert didn’t exactly play to their strong points. Taylor was intelligent enough to understand that the WA could knock down the entire structure in an hour if they wanted to.

Although it was worth noting that Taylor’s tactical decisions had grown less and less sound as time went on. Re-staging a massacre to frame the 54i, disabling DEAD systems, deleting and corrupting data to cover their tracks, these were all clever, if nothing else. But sending out Hall by herself to take out an entire CIA squadron? Any soldier knows that is a battle Taylor’s team could not possibly have won. It’s almost as if Taylor _wanted_ to lose.

Kane had a most terrible realization. Paszek had told her that Taylor, Hall, the whole team were being pushed, and almost completely controlled, by a virus of some sort. She started to put the pieces together in her head. Her theory was that John…the virus…or whatever he was, deployed Hall as a sacrificial lamb, not just to escape, but to spread the virus. He… _it_ …knew that the WA would take her down and that Paszek, or at least _somebody_ with a DNI would interface. She couldn’t be _entirely_ sure that she was correct…but it seemed more plausible the more she thought about it.

Kane was scared of being right in this situation. Every bone in her body wanted to believe that the enemy was not as smart, that they were a step behind. If her speculation turned out to be the truth…there would be no way to predict Taylor’s next move, and no way to know how to deal with it. They would find themselves second and third guessing every decision.

Well, a little more than usual, anyway.

She checked the safety on her MR6 for the umpteenth time and headed out for her VTOL. Kane’s only relief was that she didn’t have the burden of flying one herself.

* * *

 

Paszek had read many books on the Russian assault of Berlin. Much of the world had forgotten the significance of the Soviet victory, giving more credit to the American’s bombings of Japan. But the fall of Germany was what really secured the war for the Allies; Japan was more or less pinned down by that point (an official surrender was all that remained). Russia was the unstoppable force, and Berlin the immovable object. Of course Germany learned that day that no roots were strong enough to handle the mightiest wind.

He had tried to draw some comparisons between his upcoming mission and that of the Soviet Army in 1945, but they were harder to surmise than he expected. The Russian march towards Berlin was a campaign years in the making…he had only been chasing Taylor for what…a few days? But Paszek found feeling himself weary, as if this was a goal he’d been striving for his whole life.

On the bright side, though, Paszek certainly knew that what he was doing today was the right thing to do; he was taking back what was stolen from him. The Soviets had their freedom and homeland taken, and he his sanity. They wanted vengeance, and Paszek wanted answers. The sense of purpose he got from operation like this was what made him embrace military life in the first place.

And purpose was the one thing not in short supply.

* * *

 

Paszek knew that the world was ugly from up close. Poverty, death, sorrow, the land was soaked in them all. Blood and paint were just as common as one another. There was so much hate. So many misguided people thinking they will find solace in the suffering of others, fools so caught up creating civilization that they forget what it is along the way.

But one would never be able to notice even a hint of such plight from the skies. The cities they passed, including Al-Arish, from which they took off, all seemed so organized. Images of harmony came to mind, rather than horror. As the skyscraper’s lights shined, one would picture floors of office cubicles, workers coming home to their families, laughter, and love. Sadly, the façade was not thick enough for those who had the displeasure of being in Al-Arish personally.

Everything had a sort of omniscient rhythm to it, a puzzle fitting together perfectly, even as more pieces were added. This was not limited to the urban centers; the monotony of the sand was calming, and the dunes seemed to curve in a pattern indistinguishable by words (or a mathematic function, for that matter). The many technological advancements made by humanity had thankfully failed to destroy the innate beauty of nature. In a sense, it may have made the wild that much more unique, by comparison.

The radical difference between his current visual perspective of the world and the one he had always known posed many questions to Paszek. Growing up in a ghastly and cynical America, he had given up on knowing whether or not there was a God in his teens. But flying over the landscape…it seemed too majestic to be just a random cosmic event. Again, his mind was flooded with conflicting observations and conclusions; eventually he came to a tentative resolution.

He reasoned that there had to be _some_ higher power behind the scenes (or above them, rather). The world’s very existence and the ever-present complexions of humanity were unexplainable without the thought of a god of sorts. This god had to be either a twistedly comedic, dreadfully inattentive, or both. How else could a world so beautiful from afar be such a mess up close?  

Paszek rationalized that perhaps this god was unhappy with what he had created, and chose to wear rose-colored glasses, rather than fix the issue. Reasonably so, he thought, when the only true way to solve the problem of humanity was to eliminate it completely.

Fuck. That was uncomfortably dark, even for Paszek. It was a strange sensation, being jarred by one’s own thoughts.

But perhaps it was for the best; he was about 3 minutes until the ETA at the aquifer. It was time to focus on the mission at hand.

“ _In and out. Accomplish the objective at all costs.”_ he repeated the mantra in his head a few dozen times. It worked. He was in the mindset of a soldier now. He would not hesitate and he would not question. He would be nothing but efficient. He would not worry about anything other than the mission.

He would not.

* * *

 

Damn.

That was the first thing that came to Kane’s mind when she read Paszek’s live combat feed. He had taken out a total of 14 ground-to-air drones in just under the 20 minutes they had been engaged with the NRC. Not to mention that his Minigun aim was scarily accurate; he hadn’t even burned through a sixth of his ammunition taking out 103 infantry troops, and that number would continue to rise. Included in the list of confirmed kills were a disproportionately large number of soldiers with rocket launchers. Paszek was surveying specifically for the RPGs and targeting them.

Perhaps most astounding was Paszek’s newly tested piloting skills. Every jet that had taken off from the aquifer base became a plummeting assortion of debris before they could even land a shot on any WA assets. Paszek had just taken out a NRC-commandeered Bullshark in a mere 14 seconds. And that was no fluke. Kane’s eyes scrolled through the data table on her tablet just a smidge faster than the statistics appeared themselves; the average flight time of hostile aircraft was approximately 23 seconds. She was not so much impressed with his efficiency as she was surprised. Paszek would later go on to downplay the significance of his actions, citing that the on-board targeting systems made the job much easier than one would imagine. But Kane was a data junkie, and she knew there was no denying the raw stats.

Most fascinating to her, however, was the peculiar combination of calculation and (for lack of a better term) dumb bruteness that he channeled. Again trusting her analysis expertise, she pulled up Paszek’s brain activity on her screen. His DNI allowed any person with the right level of clearance (her LNO status greatly exceeded this) to view the stream of data that his brain unloaded. To an average person, it was an incomprehensible mess of numbers, but an expert like Kane could see the patterns. Paszek’s amygdala (known for controlling a person’s temper) and his frontal lobe were the showed the most spikes (or “pings”, Kane referred to them) in usage. This was quite the odd couple, as far as sections of the brain went. High frontal lobe activity was normal for soldiers; that’s where the reasoning and motor skills are controlled. In certain situations, the amygdala would be commonplace as well, although generally it led to poor decisions. But the prevalence of _both_ parts of the brain was unusual; a focused and collected soldier wouldn’t be emotionally unmanageable in the midst of battle, just as a raging and angered soldier wouldn’t the possess the same amount of finesse and logical capability.

A person of similar expertise likely would have concluded that they were being shown the brain data of two separate people, or possibly the same person at different chronological intervals.

Kane’s thoughts were interrupted by the yells of her pilot, indicating that they were about land on the aquifer. She slid her tablet in its designated slot on her waist (because, yes, they were about as important as guns now), readied her MR6 pistol, and carefully walked towards the door. She then placed a finger on her earpiece to call for her backup.

“Paszek, I’m landing on the northwestern helipad. Swing around and cover while I disable their security systems.”

Paszek responded within a few seconds. “Affirmative, Kane; en route to your position now.”

Kane arched her head to see Paszek’s VTOL quickly descend to the surface of the platform. He opened the hatch and hopped out, a heavily-modded KN-44 in hand.

She dropped from her jet and jogged towards Paszek, a bit confused as to why he exited his aircraft.

“I was assuming you would back me up from the air-” Kane started.

“Too much of a friendly fire hazard.  Plus, we don’t have any other ground troops here yet, and I can’t risk putting you out there by yourself.”

Kane gave a somewhat stunted annoyed look and starting pacing in the opposite direction, towards the access panel she needed to reach. Paszek followed several feet behind her, his head on a swivel looking for enemy activity.

Immediately in front of them stood 4 NRC soldiers, spread out in an arc shape about a dozen yards from each other. Paszek took out the 2 on the left with precise manual burst-fires, and Kane landed three fast body shots on another, followed by a headshot on the last remaining one. They continued to make their steady progress to the panel; Paszek pacified a few gunners and a sniper on a nearby balcony, while Kane make quick work of the ominously yellow-eyed grunts in their path.

Without too much difficulty, they managed to reach the security interface. Kane pried open the box with her bare hands and removed a pair of wire cutters from her belt.

“This takes two minutes, watch my back!” Kane shouted to Paszek. She had already begun meticulously yanking out wires of varying hue, length, and thickness.

Paszek nodded his head (although Kane’s back was already turned) and focused down his red dot sight. He watched as some more NRC men began running to take strategic positions around the panel. Paszek dispatched three of them (who were foolishly lined up with one another) with a single well-placed rifle shot, and tossed a HIVE grenade up onto a neighboring scaffold, where a handful of soldiers met their incendiary deaths.

A bullet whizzed past his face, and the heat from it grazed his cheek. He turned to see a ghillied sniper crouched about a football field away. As the enemy pulled the bolt his weapon, Paszek carefully aimed down his sights and fired. Two shots managed to hit the sniper’s right leg, while the others missed. Paszek swiftly panned a few meters upwards and shot at the small crane that overlooked the sniper’s position. After making contact, the crane tumbled to the ground, a portion of it landing square on the enemy’s chest, producing a surprising loud thud.

Paszek heard a faint electronic buzzing, and noticed a RAPS unit coming directly for him. He fired his rifle at the spiked drone, but it was accelerating too quickly to accurately judge a shot. Thankfully, he was able to land a hit on it before its explosion would be within the danger zone. He saw another two RAPS’ speeding from his left, quickly firing in panic; the explosion from one of the robots destroyed the other as well.

However, unbeknownst to Paszek, a third unit beelined for him from the right; he didn’t become aware of its impending physical presence until Kane, without taking her eyes off the control panel, reached for her MR6 and blew up the drones with two successive shots. Immediately after, she ripped out the final wire, emitting sparks from the security box.

“Damn.” was all that Paszek could manage to say upon seeing the sight.

Kane smiled at him. “ _Damn, indeed._ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you have enjoyed this story. Please read as much as you'd like, and I greatly appreciate feedback, if you have any to give.
> 
> Thank you!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Paszek and Kane delve deeper into the aquifer, some old wounds reopen.

“How the hell did you do that?” Paszek was enamored with her rather remarkable display of gun slinging. Taking out multiple RAPS units without even bothering to look for them was something he’d consider impossible to do _intentionally_ if he hadn’t just seen it.

 “Well, one of the quirks of the targeting is that the processor exerts itself more the closer it gets to a hostile subject. The sound frequency it emits changes with respect to its position.” She spoke with her usual briskness, but with a somewhat unusual amount of…confidence? Paszek couldn’t put his finger on what exactly was different.

He was slowly shaking his head up and down and squinting; beginning to make sense of her explanation, but clearly something got lost in translation.

Kane’s head darted upwards, her eyes following suit. She let out a barley-discernable sigh, forgetting to censor her technical jargon. Normally she would’ve called it “dumbing it down”, but Paszek was by no means dumb. His level of intellect was something of an anomaly to her. He was clearly very quick, very adaptive, and very skilled. But Paszek also fell victim to a certain level of uninformed-ness that all soldiers shared; they were always taught just enough to understand, but never enough to see the whole picture. If they really wanted to enlighten their subordinates, all of the mission reports would be quintuple the length. A certain level of sadness resided in the fact that the only people who knew the purpose of their objectives were all sitting behind desks and around command tables, while the brave men on the front lines charged into battle unaware of their true impact on the world.

“Basically, I can judge where a RAPS unit is just by listening closely.”

Paszek widened his eyes a bit and gave a smirk.

“Nice set of ears you’ve got, I guess.” Ouch. Paszek knew that was painfully awkward the moment he finished it. Set of ears? Who said _that_?

“Just the ears, Paszek?” Kane gave a sly smile. Paszek was surprised by that response. Her calling him by his name, her playful tone, and the uncharacteristically roguish grin on her face were all rare occurrences on their own, and the fact that they were happening in conjunction with one another…

Was she…flirting with him? Most of their conversations involved Paszek needing answers about something…and Kane was _the_ person for finding answers. Many times their talks consisted of Kane performing some skillful information digging and Paszek trying his best to interpret it. But with the exception of last night…and the night in Singapore, they shared few intimate moments. Actually, _no_ intimate moments. Sure, they had talked privately with each other…dozens of times, in fact. However, nothing about their chats would indicate anything other than a strictly congenial relationship; at the very least, not to the two of them. That’s not to say Paszek didn’t feel anything more. He certainly did. Confiding in Kane and being around her in general…Paszek couldn’t help but grow attached to her. He had partially spilled the beans on his feelings for her last night, and Kane was nothing but supportive, but he had a suspicion that she didn’t fully realize the extent of his attractions. He wasn’t sure whether or not he wanted her to.

All circumstances accounted for, though, Kane’s coquettish quip was still quite a change of pace for her. Kane and Paszek were, above all, coworkers, and she showed very few signs of wanting that to turn amorous, much less…sexual. But Paszek knew the past week had affected her to a great extent, perhaps as negatively influenced as himself. Paszek had scars, both physical and mental, to speak for the events that had occurred. Kane had none such, but he was sure that a piece of her emotions was in shambles. She had watched as Taylor, who she once loved, went psychopathic and murdered countless innocents. And not a few days later does she see her newfound friend start going through the same process…the same deterioration. That had to be jarring, to say the least. Paszek assumed that maybe Kane’s flirtatious attitude was just a way to distract from the somberness of the situation. He couldn’t blame her for a moment. And if a bit of light-heartedness was meant to take their minds off of the bleakness to come, then it had worked.

Paszek chuckled out loud. He wasn’t sure he had an appropriate response (or rather, an inappropriate response) to Kane. She seemed humored by what she likely deemed a puzzled but happy face on him, letting a small laugh of her own slip.

Their brief but sweet moment was interrupted by the reality of the battlefield around them, as some Egyptian Army airships began firing at a nearby NRC unit that was advancing towards. The pair took that as their cue to return to their transport.

The utter chaos that continued to take place on the top deck of aquifer prompted Kane and Paszek to holster their weapons and make a full-on sprint for the VTOLS, with Paszek dishing out a few violently devastating cybernetic shoulder checks to the foolish NRC soldiers who were unfortunate enough to wander within arm’s length of Kane.

* * *

 

It didn’t take too terribly long for them to reach the landing pad. Paszek continued running towards the edge, where his plane sat (a visually precarious position, but stable nonetheless). He remotely popped open the hatch and had begun stepping into the cockpit when…

“Paszek!” In a flash, he turned around and reached for his KN-44, expecting to be shot at. Instead he saw Kane, who was only pointing at the front end of her VTOL.

Her pilot was dead. Two rounds to the chest. Paszek panned his head around, trying to search for the culprit, but saw nothing.

Paszek tapped his ear to open up communications.

“Khalil, you got a spare pilot?”

“Affirmative. En route to your position.”

Kane glanced again at the corpse. “Don’t you…care what happened here?”

“Do you?”

No response.

Before long, an Egyptian chopper dropped off one of their pilots to take the VTOL.

* * *

 

Kane now sat in the backseat of Paszek’s VTOL, which lifted off to aquifer and began its course to the next access console.

She had been surprised earlier by viewing Paszek’s combat feed, but being up in the air with him was something else entirely. The speed, the finesse, the…spectacle of his piloting was quite a sight. The deliberate efficiency with which Paszek took out his targets...it was impressive, certainly, but equally questionable. She was well-accustomed to combat; that didn’t mean, however, that death was something she felt completely comfortable with. Watching her friend mow down people would never be one hundred percent okay in her book.

He destroyed a pod of three anti-air cannons with two well-placed missiles. Then a swarm of small drones with but one short burst of his turret. And not an instant afterwards, he flipped around on a dime and pursued a rouge NRC jet, and grounded it in eight seconds flat.

Paszek again broke his personal record; Kane made a mental note of it.

Within a few minutes, they landed on the opposite side of the aquifer, at the nearest safe docking site for the second access panel. They saw considerably fewer enemies than the first time. Only a handful of straggling soldiers remained in sight. Kane humorously reasoned that Paszek must have taken out the rest of the NRC on the top deck all on his own.

The pair made their way to the elevated platform where the panel would be found, dropping a few enemy soldiers along the path.

Wasting no time, Kane immediately took out her tools and opened the panel. She poked her head around to address Paszek.

“You know the drill.”

Paszek nodded his head and doubled back to obtain a better position for defending her.

* * *

 

Attach the micro-drive here, clip a wire there, re-route those power sources over there…configuring these panels was second nature to her. Did she think this would be the application of her electrical engineering degree? Absolutely not. She expected to be a civilian, maybe an advisor for some hotshot tech company. She’d do work with malfunction diagnostics, analytics, statistics…all the numbers and computers a girl could ask for.

But would she trade life in the CIA for any of that? Sure, there were charms to living quietly and peacefully. A career in both the government and occasionally the military was nothing if not exciting. The sense of urgency and importance she felt was likely unmatched by anything else she could be doing. In Kane’s eyes, that was probably why most military people stayed.

In the midst of her electronic fidgeting, she briefly turned her head around to check on Paszek. He watched over the open space in front of the platform like a hawk, firing quick bursts of deadly precision at any who crossed his visual path. Kane found his guarding practices to be equally attributable to a dog: loyal, territorial, and above all, caring. Of course that last one was particularly dicey when it came to Paszek; she had no doubts that he cared for her. But what exactly ran through Paszek’s head during the rush of combat was intriguingly impossible to know.

Kane assumed that his perfectly orderly behavior during battle was a facet of his darker side, the unfeeling side. While she didn’t think that he derived any pleasure from the brutality of fighting, she did imagine that he was nothing but indifferent towards the ruthlessness of it all. Maybe sometimes, that was not the case. Paszek explained that his scamper into the burning building was entirely emotion-fueled, existing as an undying need to protect her. But the way his mental state was degrading, she knew that every decision and every thought he made would become less and less of his own inhibition.

Her drifting thoughts did little to distract her from the task at hand, though. After just a few more wire cuts and re-attachments, the job was done. She now had unfettered access to the aquifer’s security systems: a major tactical advantage.

Kane stored away her tools and turned around to see Paszek being his dutifully focused self. Without saying anything, she ran past him, turned the sharp corner down the stairs, and started off towards their VTOL. Paszek followed suit shortly after.

Thankfully, their second return trip to their aircraft was less eventful: no deceased pilots this time. As soon as they were back in the sky, she pulled out her tablet and opened up a live feed of all the security cameras on the upper decks.

“Any sign of Taylor or Maretti?” asked Paszek, who had resumed his sweeping of NRC forces.

“Facial recognition has nothing yet. I’m positive that they aren’t on the top 3 floors.”

“Then let’s move lower.” responded Paszek plainly.

And so he did; hovering the VTOL down about twenty feet, so that their line of sight was now on the middle decks of the aquifer.

“It looks like Hendricks has his team ready on level four; I’ll mark his position on your HUD.”

The Heads-Up-Display that was activated by the DNI was very much a dual-edged sword. It was very helpful in pointing towards the objective, and the ammo count was also comforting to have in the corner of his eyes. Paszek could not shake the feeling, though, that it disillusioned his sense of reality. It cheapened the surreal-ness of…well…reality. It made all his battles seem like simulations, and trying to take away the cold truth of combat seemed like censorship rather than protection.

Hendricks and a group of four other WA troops were pinned behind cover by a considerably larger NRC force. Enter Paszek and Kane.

Paszek lobbed a smoke grenade, then immediately switched on his night-vision in order to see through it; pacifying three enemies soldiers in the process. Hendricks, now seeing an opening, pushed forward, icing two more with his Pharo SMG. The other friendlies cleaned up the rest with no issues.

“What took you guys so long?” asked Hendricks, entirely serious when he should’ve been joking. He’d been stuck on the outskirts of the middle decks for quite some time now.

“Airport layovers.”

* * *

 

This was not what Paszek needed right now. Anything but this.

He stared down the flooded area below the grate under his feet. Kane needed to get to the server room so access any intel in case Taylor and Maretti weren’t captured.

But did it have to be submerged in six feet of water? A monstrous lump formed in his throat.

“All the security sensors show that the server room is about level with where we are now, so it should be relatively dry. Shouldn’t be much more than a twenty second swim.” said Kane.

Paszek stood there, trying only to stop his legs from quaking. Kane noticed.

“I’ll be right behind you the whole time.”

Paszek nodded his head, took what was likely the deepest breath of his life, and dove in.

* * *

 

So far, so good, he thought. Granted, he had only been in the water for a few seconds, but he was confident he could make it through. The splash of Kane entering the flooded aquifer behind him only reassured him.

Hey. He could see the surface of the water. There was a white light. He headed towards it.

A small black bird flew by.

Wait, what? A bird? Underwater?

Two more passed by. Where those ravens? Crows? He coughed.

No. No. Something was wrong.

The light flashed brighter. A flock of birds cawed as they whizzed past him. He coughed again.

What was happening? Where was he going?

Pure whiteness filled his vision, and he could only hear the incessant calls of the birds.

Then black. Absolute black and nothingness.

* * *

 

He awakened. A tundra-like forest stood around him in every direction. Paszek would have been in awe at the beauty of it if he was not as confused and disoriented as he was.

A dark splotch appeared in thin air in front of him, and out of it stepped Sarah Hall. Why was she here? Wearing her military uniform, her pupils were a bleary orange. She moved her mouth, as if to speak, but Paszek heard nothing. Paszek tried to scream, to move, to do _something_. But it was futile. He didn’t know where he was, why he was here, or how he got there. All he knew was that he had to get out.

Hall started speaking faster, but Paszek remained temporarily deafened. What was the point of this? Was he supposed to learn something? Gain something? Realize something? He couldn’t even begin to rationalize a bit of what was happening.

Something roared in the horizon. It was water. The distinct sound of rushing water.

A tidal wave that stretched taller than any of the trees in sight loomed behind Hall. As it grew closer, it increased in both speed and volume. Again Paszek tried to turn around and run, but he was rooted in place. Oh God. It was going to hit them. This was it. This was where he died.

The wave crashed into him, and total darkness filled his eyes one again.

* * *

 

“ _Breathe, come on! Breathe!_ ”

As his eyes slowly opened, he violently vomited up a sizable amount of water. His vision was very blurry; all he could see was a slim figure crouched above him and a dark ceiling even further above. More violent coughs erupted from him, with even more briny water as a byproduct. He placed his hands on his chest to steady himself, and avoid himself from lifting up and crashing back down onto the cold steel floor.

Another pair of hands met his. They pushed down, compressing his chest to let out the remaining water and a short puff of air. They were warm. Comforting.

He blinked a few more times, and his eyesight focused more with each successive one. The first clear image he could make out was Kane’s worried face hovering over him.

“Christ, Paszek! Are you alright? I nearly lost you there!” She was freaking out. How the hell did Paszek drown during what should have been less than a half minute underwater?

“I…I…where am I?! What’s going on?!” He quickly darted to an upright position and turned his head rapidly, unadjusted to his new surroundings.

“Hey, hey, calm down,” Kane moved her hands to his shoulders. “Sit still, I don’t want you moving until we’re sure you’re ok.”

“Did you see it?” asked Paszek hurriedly.

“See…what?”

“The forest. Did you see the forest?”

“I…don’t know what you’re talking about…are you…”

“I was there!” he screamed. “The fucking Frozen Forest! I was there!”

“We’re just outside the server room, Paszek…and also in the middle of desert Egypt…” she paused for a second, not wanting to offend him with what he was about to say.

“I think you were hallucinating.” she said plainly. Paszek’s face immediately flushed with despair and denial.

“No! It was real! I was there! Sarah…Hall was there! There was a giant wave of water…” he placed a hand over his eyes. How could it not be real!? He saw it. He heard it. _He felt it_.

“Paszek, you didn’t go anywhere. You started thrashing in the water, and you went limp. I dragged you out and tried to get you breathing again. _You didn’t go anywhere_.”

Oh God. He was losing his mind. Losing his mind faster than he ever could have expected. But he couldn’t afford to crack right now. He remembered why he was here. He had to find Taylor. He had to end this soon.

“We…we need to get you help. This virus…it’s going too fast. I have friends, I can get us places…places outside the CIA, outside of the WA…wherever we need to go.”

“Kane…if we find Taylor-”

“Taylor…we don’t need him right now. We need you. _I_ need you still here. That’s what’s important here.”

He placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Whatever happens…I’m still me, you know? I’m still me…”

“I…I want to believe that. I really do.”

She grabbed his hand that was already on her and pulled it to stand him up.

“We need to keep moving. This…we’ll talk about this later…”

* * *

 

The pair crept their way through a few more desolate hallways, all devoid of any presence, enemy or friendly.

Without spending too much time, they reached the server room. Flooding in the area meant that they were wading in knee-deep water. The only source of light in the room being the dimmed glow of computers did not help.

Kane, who was leading the way, took out her tablet and approached the first row of computers, holding it up to initiate a data interface. A small red “x” appeared on her screen and a soft buzzer sound emitted from it. No dice.

“Either the data on these computers is heavily corrupted…or someone is locking me out…”

“Does it matter which one?”

“As of now, no. I won’t be getting any intel from these consoles. I think there’s more in the next room, though; we might have more luck there.” said Kane plainly.

They trudged back around the computers over to the other end of the server room, noting the increased depth of the water along the way. Kane stopped at an electronically locked door, presumably leading to another room. Knowing that the same thing that kept her out of the database would likely keep her from opening the door remotely, she approached the keypad of the door.

She pressed the numbers 3-3-2-3, and finally a confirmation button at the bottom. The light on the keypad flashed a affirmative green.

“You knew their code?” asked an again surprised Paszek.

“When reviewing their security specs, I noticed that almost every access code in the whole facility had been set to the same four digit number: 3323. Must have left it just like the workers here had it.”

The door opened. Kane’s mouth opened agape in shock.

Maybe there had been a room behind the door, but there certainly wasn’t now. Various debris stood up diagonally, leaning against the wall because they were too massive to stand horizontally. The sheer density of it all eliminated any chance of traversing through it. And to it all off, a bright set of sparks shot out from what was presumably electronic scrap.

“I don’t understand…the security schematics pinpointed that the server room was still active…” Kane was confused.

Until it hit her.

“Paszek, we have to get out of here.” Kane’s voice was calm, but solemn and serious nonetheless.

Paszek was about to speak when he was cut off.

“This was a trap; and I led us right into it.” She was still somewhat calm, but her voice wavered as she neared the ends of her sentence.

The ominous electronic humming noise that became audible made Paszek shudder. He flipped a 180 to see three robotic grunts rise out of the water. He took out his KN-44 and fired with the least prejudice he ever had in his life up to point.  Paszek wasted an entire clip of the assault rifle, but the robots laid un-operational on the ground.

Kane looked to her right and saw a handful of grunts herself, but knew that the tight quarters of the room did not play to their tactical advantage.

“We don’t stand a chance in here! Go back the way we came!” she shouted.

Paszek ran without hesitation back towards the flooded area, and Kane followed right behind him. But he absolutely dreaded climbing back in the water again. He was fresh off a hydro-activated hallucination that almost killed him, and the fact that the robot grunts (his _other_ DNI mind trigger) only made it worse. But the determination he felt outweighed fear just enough for him to thrust himself into the water.

The first thing he noticed was the squadron of grunts swimming right towards him, guns brandished. He swiftly pulled out his side arm, a newly acquired Annihilator pistol (he could thank the 54i database for the schematics to that one), and let two shots rips. One of them missed, but the other tore through four robots that found themselves lined up behind one another.

He swam a bit further forward, and saw nothing of note in the distance.

A metallic claw clamped onto his left wrist. He swiveled his head to see the deathly red eyes of grunt staring him in the face. A soulless machine peered deep into a man who losing his own. Could it feel pity or remorse? Paszek knew not. But it didn’t matter. He started to swing his right arm to knock the grunt off, but a second robot wrapped its hand around that arm.

They yanked on his arms with the most of force and the least of precision. Paszek felt an absolutely shearing pain as his muscles and joints were stretched to their limit. He heard a pop, and then a jolt of pain. Another pop. More pain. Now only the most rigid of his ligaments remained attached. The robots continued to pull relentlessly. Water around him was dyed a sultry red as both of his arms were torn off. Paszek screamed in pain, but his cries were muffled by the water.

 Before he could notice, both of the robots were gone. He simply floated in place, still reeling with the pinnacle of human pain. His lungs were desperate for air, but the intense pain of his arms occupied all the sensation in his body.

The water around him seemed to fade away in favor of a bright yellowish light. Paszek found himself drawn to it. He would be okay if he just made it to the source. An unknown force pushed him there, even though he remained motionless. Ever so slowly the light drifted closer and closer.

Then blackness.

* * *

 

The roaring of the VTOL’s engines woke him up. Paszek did not feel the need to spring up upon returning to consciousness, mostly because whatever he was laying on was far too soft and comfortable to make him want to move.

The first thing he noticed was that both of his arms were, in fact, still attached to his torso.

He cursed to himself. Two hallucinations in just as many trips into the water? And the severity of them was more than concerning. Another episode like that could kill him.

Scratch that. It _would_ kill him. The extent to which his hallucinations engaged his senses…was both puzzling and horrifying. He felt real pain. Almost exactly the same pain as when they were torn off for real. But why? Why would that be designed in the DNI? Was it intentional? A mistake? Which one would be worse?

This kind of thinking could not be considered healthy, Paszek thought. But here he was, doing it anyway.

The door to the cockpit swooped open and out stepped Kane, interrupting Paszek’s (mostly detrimental) train of thought.

Kane knew that he had to be flustered by the whole ordeal. He likely was blaming himself for having hallucinations, while not at all factual, would become nothing less than the truth his head. She decided to take a lighter approach.

“I think we should make a mental note…no more deep-sea diving for you.”

Paszek continued looking straight up towards the ceiling, saying nothing. Kane was about to speak again when she was stopped.

“Was it you again? That got me out of there?” he sat up to face her.

She nodded her head, and saw Paszek faintly smile for a moment.

“How did the mission go?”

“We have Taylor and Maretti trapped in one of the hangars. A strike team is preparing to head in as we speak. As for us, you and I are going back to Al-Arish; we have an expert from Coalescence who’s going to see if there’s a way to fix your DNI.”

Paszek heard all of what she said, but focused on her summary of the mission.

“A strike team led by whom?”

“…Hendricks.”

Paszek did not hesitate for a moment. “Turn this thing around. I need to go back to the aquifer.”

Kane shot him a flabbergasted look. “Are you serious? You are not in a condition, mental _or_ physical, to go back into combat.”

“Hendricks is in deeper than me; if he is one who runs into Taylor, something bad _will_ happen.”

“And you would be any better?”

“A little bit better. And that’s all that matters.”

“I’m not sending you back into a war zone in the mental state that you’re in!”

“Do you trust me more than him? More than Hendricks?”

She frowned.

Kane immediately walked back into the cockpit, and Paszek could see her tap the pilot on the shoulder before the door shut again.

* * *

 

It was a strange sight, seeing the aquifer just forty-five minutes after their initial assault on it. WA planes still circled the platform, but there was no gunfire whatsoever. Was it serene? Not at all. But it was normal. Also normal for the battlefield was the piles and piles of debris strewn around, along with the bodies of fallen soldiers (mostly NRC). Anybody could tell you that the WA had clearly won the battle.

Paszek, of course, knew better than that.

After being dropped off at a landing pad and following a diagram that Kane gave him, Paszek went down a few flights of stairs and ended up in a long hallway with a single door at its end. Expecting to see a small group of CIA operatives, Paszek instead found just one person in the hall.

Hendricks.

He had his back against the wall, looking like he was preparing to breach the door. He noticed Paszek walking towards him and was simultaneously confused and a bit angry.

“Hendricks! Where’s the rest of your strike team?” Paszek knew exactly what was up. Hendricks ditched his team to try and take out Taylor and Maretti on his own.

“You know why I have to do this myself…” he said. “They’re our friends, man. You can’t seriously tell me you think putting them down is the right thing to do!”

“Taylor’s squad…they stopped being themselves when the virus hit. And right now I don’t think you’re yourself either.” replied Paszek, sounding stern but calm.

“What are you talking about? I’m trying to do what’s best for them!”

Then Hendricks turned cold. The same cold that Paszek felt inside. But it was out. Out in the open for both of them to feel.

“Oh, let me guess, Kane gave you this idea? She’s been against us the whole time, Paszek! She knows _way_ more than she’s telling us. But you’re too blind to see it.”

Paszek narrowed his eyes.

His onslaught did not stop.

“I know what’s really happening. You’ve gone soft. Found a sweet spot for your tech support. Kane’s feeding you bullshit, plain and simple, and your fucking puppy dog eyes ignore all of that.”

“If you seriously believe that-”

“Don’t you fucking try to deny it! I _heard_ you say it, yourself! What was it…’passion and love’ that got in the way? It was fucking stupid…and people died because of that! Your _feelings_ got innocent people killed! What are you going to next? Find a nice home in the country, start a life with her? Don’t kid yourself. Fucking pathetic.”

Paszek balled up his fist, and took a few aggressive steps towards Hendricks

“Maybe instead of dropping Taylor and Maretti, I should find Kane and put a bullet in her head!”

Paszek punched Hendricks on the right side of his jaw. And again on the left. And again on the right. He shoved him against the adjacent wall.

Paszek delivered his ultimatum with the most fire and rage he had ever spoken with.

“You listen to me, Hendricks, and you better fucking listen good! You and I, we’re both losing our goddamned minds. Taylor and Maretti, they already lost theirs, you hear! They are not who they used to be. But besides that, you crossed the fucking line, man! Spying on me during my _private_ conversations! Thinking that the person that has stood by my side, stood by _our_ side all this time was betraying us! And threatening her! _You’re_ the one who’s fucking pathetic.”

He paused for a brief moment.

“I’m taking command of this operation from now on. If I hear another fucking _word_ about Kane, I’ll deal with you myself. And that wouldn’t be too good, now would it? Right now, you’re my best gun, and my only gun. Not to mention my friend.”

Paszek released his grip, and Hendricks fell to the floor. Paszek immediately reached out a hand.

“Now get up. We have some fugitives to catch.” Hendricks grabbed Paszek’s hand, and he lifted him up onto his feet.

* * *

 

Paszek opened the door at the end of the hallway, and behind stood (surprise, surprise) another long corridor. However, this one was considerably wider and had a much higher ceiling. About 50 yards in front there was what looked like a command center. A set of stairs of led up the compartment, which was filled with computers and protected by glass panels (presumably bullet and shock proof). A familiar face stood behind it.

Peter Maretti.

The moment Paszek noticed it was him, Maretti reached over and pressed a button on a console right next to him.

Paszek dived into a nearby out-cove just as the turrets down the hall fired a flurry of bullets at their position.

Hendricks, still standing behind the doorway of the last room, waited for the gunfire to cease and took that as his opportunity to move in. Using his KN-44 (the rifle had become a favorite of his), he took aim at the turrets and fired rapidly, using his DNI-enhanced arm to steady the kick of the weapon. Before his clip was empty, all 4 of the machine turrets were flaming and disoperational.

“All clear?” shouted Hendricks.

Maretti, his automated defenses now in shambles, picked up a sniper rifle he stashed in the command room. Its laser sight was visible to both of his targets.

“Not quite!” shouted back Paszek.

“He can’t hit both of us!” replied Hendricks.

Paszek nodded, and Hendricks gave his own gesture of confirmation. They both sprinted forwards but diagonally, zigzagging past each other in a diamond weave pattern. Maretti took multiple frustrated shots, but found himself unable to land any of them, even as the pair neared his position. Recognizing his current stratagem as ineffective, he turned to his Plan B.

He lobbed a pack of C4 out of the window, its detonator taped to the bottom to allow for explosion on impact.

“Get down!” yelled Paszek, who rolled to the left, with Hendricks following suit in the opposite direction. Although they both managed to escape the blast radius, the explosion rocked the entire room, with the high ceiling of the room partially collapsing. A large piece of metal debris, crashed down into the room just outside the command center, sticking up like a flagpole.

Paszek got up as quickly as he could, and made haste towards the stairs, climbing them before Maretti had a chance to recover from the C4 blast. He opened the door to come face to face with an unarmed Maretti. He pointed his Annihilator at the fugitive.

“Give it up, Maretti. There’s nowhere for you to run.”

He spoke with upmost calmness.

“You don’t understand. We’re not trying to run. We’re trying to change the world.”

“Where’s Taylor!?”

“Gone. Probably already in downtown Cairo.”

“You’re coming with us.”

“I’m afraid that’s not the case. I’m going to the Frozen Forest.”

“Where is the Frozen Forest? What is it?”

“You do not understand…yet. You cannot find the Frozen Forest. It finds you.”

Paszek paused his rapid-fire questioning, as Maretti’s last answer left him very confused. Before he could ponder the response any longer, Maretti started to speak. But this was not the calm and collected Maretti. This was a much more panicked and frightened one.

“ _Paszek!”_ he shouted.

“ _Kill. Me_.”

Paszek only stared at him.

“ _Please._ ”

He had absolutely no idea what was going on.

Maretti pulled out a knife, and Paszek cocked the axel of his Annihilator. Maretti started to advance. His other voice returned.

“ _Imagine somewhere calm_.” he took a step.

“ _Imagine somewhere safe_.” another foot forward.

“ _Imagine yourself in a frozen forest_.” he lifted the knife.

As Maretti slashed downwards with his knife, Paszek was forced to fire his Annihilator. The buckshot of the weapon pierced through Maretti and tossed him back, breaking the glass behind it. He continued to fall until he was stopped…by the spiked metal debris protruding from the floor, impaling him.

Paszek ran down the stairs to check what had happened, but he already knew Maretti would be dead three times over. Hendricks stood just a few feet from the base of the debris, horrified.

“The right thing, Paszek?” he said, clearly passive aggressively.

Paszek gave no answer. He didn’t know. He simply walked out of the room and retraced his path to Kane’s VTOL. Hendricks followed him about a minute later.

The worst part of it, Paszek thought? He didn’t even feel a little bit sorry.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the midst of the siege of Cairo, Paszek and Hendricks confront Taylor, but things don't go as expected.

_Mission Report for November 3 rd, 2070: Commander Ignacio Paszek_

_The initial assault on the aquifer was very successful. Air forces for both the WA and Egyptian Army proved very effective in breaking through NRC defenses on the platform; this made operations on the top deck by myself and LNO Kane relatively simple._

_Complications arrived when we pushed further down the aquifer, though. A server room that supposedly contained intel on the location of the fugitives was only accessible through a highly flooded area. Proceeding through the water led to some unforeseen setbacks 1, and the server room itself turned out to be a bust, a trap set by the NRC to take out Kane and I. Luckily, we both managed to escape mostly unharmed._

_Commander Hendricks made an attempt to stop the fugitives without backup, and as a result I made the decision to assert myself as the head of the mission. We confronted Maretti, and he revealed that Taylor was now likely in Cairo. Maretti resisted capture, and I was forced to retaliate, accidently killing him in the process. I take full and absolute responsibility for his unintended death._

_ 1 _ _CLASSIFIED FOOTNOTE: RESERVED FOR DESIGNATION #7754027: Liaison Noncommissioned Officer Rachel Kane:_

_These hallucinations were completely and utterly debilitating. I lost all sense of reality, and I was under the impression I was in terrible danger. Also of note is the appearance and mention of the so-called “Frozen Forest”. Taylor and his team have referred to it numerous times, but we have no solid information on what exactly it is. My first hallucination took place in a large forest, seemingly during the winter. I think that these images are what caused the team to search for this “Frozen Forest”. After reviewing the files we have on the Coalescence disaster, I’ve opted not to contact anyone affiliated with their organization. Paranoid as it is, I believe that Coalescence is hiding too many secrets to be trusted now. I’m positive that finding Taylor will solve any DNI related problems persisting in both myself and Hendricks._

* * *

 

It was astounding how slowly time had passed during the course of the last week. It had only been just that: a week. But it felt like so much longer. The level of weariness Paszek felt should have been the result of a tour lasting weeks, months, maybe a year.

Should they have chosen to run a different operation every day? Probably not. It left the three people directly involved: Paszek, Kane, and Hendricks, with almost no time to rest and recover. That exhaust existed on two plains: both mental and physical. Considering that most of their missions commenced around noon, lasted a few hours, and had significant transport time between the active sites and their base, they had very little down time remaining. Even most of their “down-time” consisted of going through and researching all the intelligence they had gained or refreshing on older files. Paszek estimated that the amount of sleep he received each night averaged around four, not nearly enough to refuel for another grueling excursion into combat.

Their time crunch also greatly limited their cognitive abilities; both a lack of rest and a lack of time to question were present. Paszek found it difficult for anything to “sink in”. That is, nothing that happened during the day was ever given the necessary period to fully register in his mind; understanding the situation he found himself in became more of a luxury than anything.

Kane strolled into Paszek’s room at around 8 PM. The two of them had shared no conversation since the end of their operation today, but she knew that Paszek wanted to talk to her. Although she also knew that it was likely to be more of an emotional brain dump than a discussion.

Paszek sat expressionless in his desk chair, Kane could not conclude whether he was deep contemplation or none at all. She took a seat on the edge of his bed, and pressed her hands against her face, in an almost defeated fashion.

If Paszek knew anything, it was that he knew nothing. There were so many unknowns: past, present, near future, distant future…he couldn’t even begin to process it all, let alone prioritize it.

Where to start? He looked at Kane and let out a faint sigh, and she made a face that indicated the same feeling.

“I had to disable my direct communications in my DNI.”

Kane gave him a puzzled look. “Why?”

“Hendricks found a way to eavesdrop on me using it. Not sure exactly what he was able to exploit, but I figure disconnecting any links to him would do the trick.”

“How did you find out?” Kane asked. “More importantly, when exactly was he listening in?”

“You read the mission report, right?”

Kane nodded.

“When I confronted him in the hallway…I tried to stop him from going in alone…he accused you of hiding something from us. Said he was smarter than me because he could see that you were against us.”

Another baffled look from Kane.

“He said that I was stupid to trust you. That my…er… _feelings_ …for you prevented me from seeing the truth. Used a direct quote from me.”

Kane didn’t know how to respond. But Paszek continued, breaking the brief silence.

“He…he said that…that he should go kill you instead of hunting Taylor’s team.”

Kane’s face contorted into a disgusted reaction. “Hendricks said that?” She was absolutely horrified. Not for Hendricks, though. If she was to be honest, she never really liked Hendricks, his “brute soldier” attitude rubbed her the wrong way, not to mention his slowness and thick-minded demeanor that made dealing with him even more difficult. But he was not a murderer. He wasn’t someone who would commit treason. And Kane could only assume that the virus was what morphed him into…whoever he was now. The kind of person that threatened to kill her.

And Paszek had already begun the same transformation. How long would it be until he started having the same thoughts? Days? Hours? She wanted to believe with all her heart that his strong attachment to her would stop that from happening, but there was no way to know.

Kane could not let this happen. Paszek was a good man. A good friend. She wanted…no…she _needed_ him to get better.

“What did you do about it?”

“I put myself in command over him, and over the mission.”

“And he agreed?”

“I’m not proud of what I did.”

“You…”

“I beat him up. Real bad. I was just so angry…so mad that he would say something like that…so furious that he even had the thought of…hurting you.” Again he trailed off near the end of his statement, but he soon started again.

“We’ve come to something of an understanding. He knows I’m in charge…but I don’t know how long it will last.”

“At this rate, not very long, Paszek!” Kane raised her voice. Paszek kept the same distressed look on his face. “And how long will you last? ‘Til things get worse?” she hated to be this abrasive, but at the same time, she had to get her point across.

“ _I don’t know_ , Kane! I don’t fucking know! There’s a virus eating its way through my mind and I don’t know how long until it takes over!” screamed Paszek, his voice growling and teeth clenched.

“I’m…sorry. I didn’t mean to yell at you. I…” he instantly regretted his outburst.

Kane didn’t seem too fazed. “It’s okay…I…”

Another silence found its way into the room.

“Do you want to talk about your…hallucinations?” asked Kane, hoping to be more productive with their conversation.

“This ‘Frozen Forest’ that Taylor keeps mentioning…I’m pretty sure that’s where I was.”

“But didn’t Dr. Salim say that the Frozen Forest wasn’t real? It was just a concept he created to calm the patients?”

“Yes…but I think Taylor is trying to go there, regardless of whether or not it actually exists. Hallucinating might be the way to get there.” Paszek did not seem entirely confident in his conclusion, but it was the best one he had for now. He decided to focus more on the other aspects of the hallucination.

“The weirdest part of it…was that Hall was there. Right in front of me. She was trying to say something to me…but I couldn’t hear her.” Paszek wondered in his head what she could have been doing. Scolding him? Warning him? Threatening him?

He paused.

“I think it was my punishment for killing her. She had to suffer through all the pain, and now I do too.” Paszek’s face drooped into an unusually glum and somber expression.

“You can’t honestly believe that.”

A piercing look from Paszek.

“This is not Sarah haunting you from the grave. If you want my take on it, this is just you feeling guilty, and your thoughts are being exemplified by the DNI. The virus might have something to do with it, but I think this is mostly you.”

Paszek’s sharp squint soon faded as he looked down.

“So what you’re saying is…this _is_ my fault?” his tone was more dejected than accusatory.

“I mean…not exactly, but…” she struggled to find a better way to phrase her conclusion

“No, no…you...you’re right…” he stumbled over his words even more than before.

Both of them realized that this was going nowhere. Paszek would continue blaming himself, Kane would try and draw another prognosis, and nothing would really change. But that didn’t mean they would stop. Perhaps in some strange, twisted way, it was therapeutic. For both of them.

“They both told me the same thing, you know?”

“Pardon?”

“Hall and Maretti. They both told me they wanted to die.”

“But Maretti…he attacked you, right?”

“Right before he did…he had this brief little moment of clarity. The virus was controlling him completely, but he must have broken out for a few seconds. And he uses his instant of freedom to tell me to kill him. I think he was so ashamed of what he had done…just wanted to end it.”

“Please don’t let what you’re inferring be true.”

“What?”

“You still have a chance. You don’t have to let it come to that.”

“Oh, no…I wasn’t saying that I’d…”

He stopped in his tracks.

“I won’t. I won’t do that.”

Another silence.

“Thanks, Rachel.”

“Anytime.” she was somewhat confused by his sudden change in tone, but she didn’t mind it.

“And for what it’s worth, I think that they…Peter and Sarah…they were just making a sacrifice…knowing that the virus couldn’t survive without its hosts. I think they did the noblest thing they could have.” Kane said.

“They were good soldiers. I know they’d make that choice if given the opportunity.” responded Paszek.

And for the fourth time in their short conversation, a distinct quietness settled.

“We’re going to fix this. Fix you.”

“We can try.”

* * *

 

_Mission Briefing for November 4 th, 2070: Commander Ignacio Paszek_

_All WA operatives take note: John Taylor is the primary objective. Egyptian Army forces will be more preoccupied with repelling NRC forces and taking back Cairo, but capturing the fugitive is absolutely necessary._

_Commander Hendricks and I will lead the pursuit of Taylor. If any sort of chase erupts, all WA operatives should do whatever they can do clear a path for us; we cannot afford to lose Taylor for the third time._

_If Taylor is captured or killed, then WA forces should assist Egyptian Army troops in dispelling NRC presence in the city, and, situation permitting, evacuate civilians._

_Again, it is very important that no soldiers with a DNI attempt to interface with the fugitive. While the exact reason why is unknown, we know that something stored within his mind is corrupting in nature, and transferring this data to another DNI would only cause a similar deterioration._

_Do whatever is necessary to apprehend John Taylor. Use of deadly force is authorized._

* * *

 

Kane was horribly mistaken in being excited for the last mission. Any eagerness she harbored to go out into the field was dashed by what Paszek had gone through on the aquifer. So she was somewhat relieved to be back behind the computer for this operation. That was uncharacteristic for her…she was just as trained to kick ass as she was to hack. And she knew that she’d be worried sick for Paszek the entire time, even if she could talk to him.

She considering having his brain activity opened up on a separate tab to real-time monitoring, but Kane knew that it would only cause her to overanalyze the data; she’d be looking for trends that don’t exist and find reasons to think Paszek had already lost all control. Not to mention that inner-working of Paszek’s mind were equally unknown and concerning to her…trying to understand it all was not an enigma she was entirely sure she wanted to solve.

Something Kane did try to understand, though, was the motivation of this virus. Taylor, under the influence, supported the 54i, the NRC, and the CDP. Does it have some sort of grudge against the WA? Who designed it? Why was it located in the Coalescence building? And why _after_ the disaster? Her hunch was that a CDP mole in Coalescence planted the virus, but there was nothing to back up her theory (other than a handful of scientists having defected from CDP-occupied countries). It also didn’t exactly answer why someone thought building a human-mind-infesting virus that can only be spread through interfacing would be a more effective means of warfare than just building bigger guns. She knew better than most not to underestimate the power of cyber-attacks, but the damage caused by the virus, on a global scale, was relatively minimal. Yes, Singapore became a bit more chaotic, but the 54i’s leadership fell apart due to the virus’ presence in the form of Taylor and company. In fact, the WA had _gained_ more ground on just about all fronts during the time period.

In some self-absorbed way, Kane almost wanted to believe that the virus was specifically meant to punish her. Two of its six victims so far currently are or used to be the most important people in her life. As if watching Taylor go rouge wasn’t enough for her, they had to go and infect Paszek, too, of all people.

It could have been anyone else. Anyone else on the face of the planet and she’d be okay with it. Obviously she’d still want to stop it…but it wouldn’t have to be so…personal. She’d thought about some impossible opportunity to take half of Paszek’s burden off him. Kane knew that she _wouldn’t_ do it, not because she didn’t want to, but because Paszek would only be hurt more by watching her suffer. That was how much she knew he cared.

Kane was going try her damnest to care just as much.

* * *

 

Was it bad that Paszek did not care about what happened to Cairo?

Not as in he had _no opinion_ on the occupation of the city…but the normally important issue of whether or not a militant group had a grip on (essentially) an entire country seemed trivial. The war they were fighting, however much people would say otherwise, was not a new one. The same economic and ideological reasons caused the same quarrels. Sure, they had faster soldiers, faster weapons, faster technology. But it really was the same.

It was probably very selfish to think in the manner he was, but Paszek wanted only to catch Taylor. To undo the damage. To be normal once again. Would Taylor have all the answers they needed? Probably not. But he hoped he did. Because they needed answers now.

Of course, the only way to get to Taylor was to create a distraction for the NRC forces he was more or less hiding behind. A whole city full of distractions would do.

It was surprisingly easy to infiltrate Lotus Towers, where Taylor had taken refuge. For being the tallest skyscraper in Cairo, there was little security, at least on its lower floors. The Egyptian Army only had to deal with a handful of guards in the lobby. The small group of soldiers, along with Paszek and Hendricks, made their way to the tenth floor via elevator, NRC uniforms on to avoid suspicion.

They passed through a few empty common rooms before reaching the entrance to the balcony overlooking the city. Just outside the balcony stood three NRC soldiers. The silenced pistols used by Paszek and two of their Egyptian Army comrades combined with the thick window glass to muffle the sounds of their deaths completely.

There were a total of five people currently on the balcony; four standard guards and one General Marawan Hakim.

Hakim was the NRC’s top military leader, and the CDP’s best link to Africa. He was the embodiment of the NRC’s pedigree: ruthlessness and violence. He had no qualms about torturing enemy officers and innocent civilians alike. Nor did he have any difficulty making the decision to drop a deadly chemical agent on Ramciel in order to “convince” South Sudan to join the coalition. General Hakim also saw no issue in letting his men rape and pillage wherever and whenever they pleased.

In other words, Hakim was a human piece of garbage. Paszek did not enjoy killing other people, but he knew that his doing so, in this case, would bring about positive change and happiness for many people. And he would always take the opportunity to do that.

With the hostiles’ backs turned, Hendricks and the EA soldiers crept through the sliding door silently, and quickly took out the four NRC soldiers on the balcony, leaving just the general.

Hakim was startled by the gunshots and turned around to see Paszek standing not three feet behind him.

“What? How did-”

Before he could finish his surprised statement, Paszek lifted him up completely and tossed him over the railing, into the bloodthirsty mob of Cairo natives a hundred feet below. It was a brutal act, done to please the brutish crowd. Paszek dared not look down to see what animalistic things they were doing to him.

A voice boomed over the loudspeakers that lined the skyscrapers. It was Khalil’s. Paszek smiled knowing that it was likely Kane’s job to crack into the speakers.

“ _Citizens of Cairo! Now is the time to strike! Now is the time to fight for your city! For your freedom!”_

This had been a long time coming for Cairo. Their fifth full year of NRC occupation had just passed. As the rioters below roared, Paszek could almost feel their aura of vengeance.

With the NRC having their hands more than full now, Paszek panned around looking for their most important fugitive. He figured that Taylor would likely be booking it, trying to get out of the madness.

Wait a second.

On another balcony, about a hundred feet to his right, a bald man stood completely still, facing him. Waving to him, as if it was a greeting.

Paszek turned and noticed him. After a few seconds of eye contact, the man, who he now recognized as Taylor, stopped his wave and simply pointed up.

What the hell was that supposed to mean?

Taylor’s subsequent traversal up a large outdoor elevator shaft that scaled a few dozen feet above where they currently were seemed to answer that question. There was absolutely no way Paszek, or anyone else with a DNI would be able to maneuver that efficiently. Taylor simply had more experience with the implants than any other person alive today.

Paszek was going to have to get higher the hard way.

* * *

 

Khalil told them that the fastest way up would be the mobile shops, which was what the outdoor elevator shafts were built for. Apparently, they had become something of a cultural phenomenon in the Eastern Hemisphere, but Paszek had not heard of them.

Either way, the swarm of NRC troops made taking any sort of stairs (or the elevator in the Lotus Tower, for that matter) near impossible. Paszek and Hendricks sped towards the car holding the shop, vaulting over a few concrete barriers on the way there. The interior of the shop was about the size of a small bedroom, and computer monitors lined most of walls, with the exception of a plexiglas panel on the north side that overlooked the city streets. What was intended to be a scenic view was now a chaotic one.

Hendricks pressed a large blue button reading “15”, which they assumed would take them up to the 15th floor (from their current position of 10). It took a few seconds, but eventually the elevator shook a bit and started its gradual ascent.

As Paszek watched the riots in the streets below drift further and further away as they rose, he also noticed a steady climb in the volume of gunfire, a rather baleful trend.

They weren’t escaping from the battle. They were headed right into it. Taylor wanted them to go this way. No matter what they did, the corrupted commander was a step ahead.

A ringing bell signaled that they shop had reached its destination, so Paszek and Hendricks both took cover near the doorway to avoid any panic fire that might find its way into the shop. Giving hand gesture to indicate their next move, Hendricks stepped out of the elevator and quickly panned to his right, Paszek following close behind and turning to the opposite direction.

Paszek, seeing nothing but fleeing civilians in his sights, turned back around.

It was a brutal scene. NRC soldiers kicking citizens to the ground and executing them. With no thought. With no prejudice. He glimpsed a robotic grunt doing the same.

Something was off about these grunts. Paszek had only seen them flashing blue or red eyes, which he came to understand indicated their level of hostility. These robots however, had a very distinct yellow glow. Based on what he knew, this would mean the robots were…neutral? Sentient, perhaps? But they were anything but. If anything, they displayed a greater level of savagery. Was it more human? Less? Paszek didn’t know. But it was weird.

His idle thoughts did little to distract him from the goal at hand though. Paszek and Hendricks made quick work of a large group of NRC soldiers, partly because they were more focused on curbing the riots than defending Taylor (most of them, in all likelihood, did not even have orders or knowledge to protect him). The grunts were taken down in the same swift fashion.

It became somewhat monotonous for the two; they would turn a corner, find a bunch of enemies, and fire until they weren’t being fired at. Taylor’s path had become quite simple to follow, as he tended to use sizable chunks of building debris as his path upwards.

If only the rest of that day would have been that easy.

* * *

 

The visions started out subtle enough. Some discoloration here, a handful of crows there. Creepy? Yes. Off-putting? Absolutley. Concerning? Very. But enough to stop Paszek? Not even close.

Tower Two changed that, though.

Tower Two was an abandoned robotics factory, which, in the wake of the NRC occupation, was left to rot (or was it rust?) in the dry desert air. Of course, no one realized that the bots were now without a master, and susceptible to someone else controlling them. Who that person, or group, or entity was, Paszek did not know at the time. But they were not friendly.

Everything from militarized grunts to utility and maintenance drones were hostile towards them. None of them proved to be anything more than a moderate nuisance, but Paszek found their presence unsettling nonetheless. He still possessed a strong distrust and an occasionally debilitating phobia of the steel beasts, and the virus/DNI combo wasn’t doing him any favors.

But oddly enough, the robots weren’t what caused the latest hallucination. In fact, it seemed to be triggered by nothing in particular. Hendricks had just opened up a ceiling grate for them to traverse to the exit of the tower.

His entire vision went grey, and the face of a giant crow sat dormant in front of him: a significant amplification of earlier hallucinations. But this time a voice spoke.

“ _Listen to the sound of my voice.”_

_“All that remains is your sacrifice._

_“One moment of agony to secure a better future.”_

_“Take it. Take the chance.”_

_“Imagine somewhere calm.”_

_“Imagine somewhere safe.”_

_“Imagine yourself in a frozen forest.”_

Suddenly the crow disappeared and an image of a man sprouting phoenix-like wings encompassed his line of sight. The view was from the back; he couldn’t exactly make out who it was. Taylor? Hendricks? Himself?

“ _You only have to listen.”_

A harsh snapping sound.

“Hey! You listening to me?” barked Hendricks, his hand waving in front of Paszek’s face.

“Taylor is held up in a detention center on the 90th floor. We need to move.” he said.

Paszek simply nodded and boosted himself up into the grate opening.

* * *

 

The rest of their journey to the detention center was not notable in any way, only a small handful of grunts and turrets opposed them. After climbing up a few more flights of stairs, they found themselves in front of a wide door. A cell door. Carbon lined with a few extra layers of dense steel, if Paszek remembered correctly (which, with a DNI, he certainly did).

This was it. This was where they would catch Taylor. All the suffering, all the nightmares, they would end here.

Paszek hovered his hand over the door console, and a blue light flashed to confirm his interface, opening the door in the process.

Behind a glass screen sat John Taylor. He had his signature smug grin plastered on his face, like he knew he was smarter than everyone else in the room. Maybe he was.

Both Hendricks and Paszek pointed their weapons at him.

“Stand down, Taylor!” ordered Paszek. Another incident like the one at the aquifer couldn’t happen now. They needed Taylor alive.

Taylor continued to hold his M6 pistol in the air.

“C’mon Taylor! You’re better than this!” said Hendricks. He had watched the rest of his friends die.  Even with the little humanity he had left in him, he still clung to those thoughts.

“You can fight this! I know you! You’re strong!”

Paszek saw just the slightest glimmer of hope in Hendricks’ eyes.

“Alright…alright…” murmured Taylor. He slowly placed his gun on the floor and raised his hands. Hendricks stepped forward to press the release button on the glass panel.

Taylor flicked his left wrist. A faint humming sound could be heard.

“Wait, Hendricks…” said Paszek, extending his arm to tell Hendricks not to open the cell.

Before either of them could properly react, a pack of grunts burst in from Taylor’s left side, firing through and shattering the screen. Paszek and Hendricks took cover behind two adjacent computer consoles, but they quickly returned fire, managing to destroy all of the robots but one, which dashed forward in an attempt to grab Hendricks. Luckily, Hendricks moved his heads out of the way and clutched the robots head with his right hand, tearing it off with ease.

Taylor was able to control the robots. Perfect.

* * *

 

A sizable hole had been formed in the wall where the grunts came through, and Paszek heard the loud footsteps of Taylor escaping in that direction.

Paszek dropped his KN-44 that he been holding and ran full throttle after Taylor, his face stoic and contempt the whole time. The grunts charged in the opposite direction, but their collisions with Paszek proved wholly ineffective in stopping his assault, their tough metal frames bouncing off him as if they were lightly tossed pillows. Nearly blinded by his suicide run, Taylor was nowhere to be found by Paszek.

 Now standing at one end of a long hallway, he encountered another lot of grunts, this time numbering about thirty.

“Hendricks! Deal with the bots! I’m going for Taylor!” Paszek didn’t even give a passing thought to the idea that he had given Hendricks an impossible order; eliminating that many robots on his own was quite simply preposterous. But neither of them seemed to care at the time.

Hendricks nodded and aimed his gun down the corridor, firing at the ever-advancing group of robots. Paszek continued his chase by climbing an adjacent staircase. Upon reaching the top, he managed to catch a glimpse of Taylor entering a…Mothership? Paszek immediately concluded that the whole chase through the city was just manufactured by Taylor to lead them to the roof. Where he had all his firepower.

Paszek’s next thought was that he deeply regretted dropping his assault rifle in his rage-induced stampede. Thankfully, it was short-lived as a small weapons bunker sat about twenty feet away. He quickly dived into the concrete shelter, narrowly dodging the first volley of bullets fired by Taylor.

A BlackCell launcher leaned against the north wall of the bunker. Paszek knew that it was lock-on-only, normally a disadvantage, but the situation made it irrelevant. He picked it up and examined the weapon; it still had a rocket chambered with three additional ones in reserve: standard metrics for a BlackCell. Not wanting to risk being hit by Taylor’s turrets, he crawled over to the launcher and picked it up.

Unfortunately, Paszek had little time to think, as Taylor fired a barrage of missiles at his position, reducing the previously solid roof and ceiling of the bunker to minuscule rubble. He scrambled to his feet and sped out of the now exposed bunker, needing to find more cover.

Taylor continued to unload machine gun rounds at Paszek, but his status as a moving target made actually hitting him quite difficult. Paszek’s downloaded knowledge of the Mothership and its strafing patterns were also quite helpful, as he could easily predict when, where, and how long his next series of shots would take place.

When Taylor stopped firing to reassess his situation, Paszek took the opportunity to aim his BlackCell and launch a rocket at the right-most thruster of the aircraft; if he managed to land a direct hit on all four of them, the ship would likely crash.

Although Taylor continued to launch missiles at Paszek, he was able to evade all of them; the bright red outlines that appeared on his HUD gave him more than ample time to judge his next move and escape the blast zone. Before long, Paszek hit Taylor’s thruster on the other end, both his ammo count and Taylor’s maneuvering capabilities now halved.

Then he heard a most familiar revving sound. RAPS units.

He recalled Kane’s explanation that she could pinpoint the proximity of the spiked rolling pins by listening for the pitch of their heat-seeking motor. It was easier said than done, but Paszek figured it was worth a shot.

1040.5 hertz. Give or take. C6 in musical terms. He heard it to the west…he was moving at about 8 kilometers per hour…calculate Doppler Shift…carry the five…make metric conversions…

20 feet in _that_ direction. He swiveled his entire body and launched an EMP grenade, the radius of the charge disabling the lone unit that Taylor had sent out (why the Mothership was so under- stocked in them was an anomaly that Paszek neither knew nor wished to investigate).

Taylor was visibly frustrated now, wildly altering his flight path in an attempt to curb Paszek’s rocket launching. It was futile. Paszek fired his two remaining rounds at the two interior engine thrusters is quick succession, effectively disabling the Mothership.

The “crash” that ensued was something of a rare feat. The aircraft hit the roof right side up, essentially a hard-landing more than a crash. Paszek woefully underestimated the amount of ground the Mothership would cover before touching down, missing being crushed by it by only ten feet.

His miscalculation did not go unpunished, though. A stray piece of rebar that was flung by the wreck found its way into Paszek’s left arm, pinning him to the floor. The impressive display of combat critical thinking and intuitiveness was rendered meaningless.

As the rotors sputtered, Taylor propped open the back hatch and stepped out, seemingly unharmed. He brandished a standard combat knife.

Paszek yanked at the sharpened debris that impaled his arm. It didn’t budge an inch. Taylor slowly advanced on him.

 “I have to admit…you’ve put up quite a fight thus far.” He said blankly.  “You have this…innate ability to resist conformity…it’s almost admirable…”

“You don’t have to do this…” Paszek sounded utterly defeated. He knew would die here.

“No, I think I do…” Taylor sounded like he just realized something gravely important.

He raised the knife, ready to strike. But instead of stabbing Paszek, he plunged the blade into the back of his own head, screaming in pain as he did. After making the incision, he dropped the knife and stuck his left hand into the wound, tearing out a long string of wires with small notches attached to it. Taylor discarded that too and fell to the floor next to Paszek, reeling from pain and blood loss.

“Your DNI…you removed it…it’s over…” Paszek was stunned.

“No…” Taylor shook his head. “It’s still in there…you…Hendricks…”

Apparently killing patient zero wasn’t enough to kill the virus.

 “Kane…is…is she alright?” asked Taylor. He knew he would dead in minutes, if not sooner.

“She’s good. Safe.” said Paszek. He didn’t want to elaborate any further on their relationship; it would only cheapen the closure for Taylor.

“Tell her that I…”

He was cut off by a bullet through his brain. Paszek panned his head over to see Hendricks holding his MR6 pistol, still smoking at the end.

“What the fuck was that!?” screamed Paszek.

Hendricks didn’t say a word, or even change his expression at all. He simply turned around to enter an awaiting NRC VTOL.

This was too much to process for Paszek. Taylor was dead, Hendricks was completely brainwashed, and he was…still alive? Why? Why would Hendricks spare him? How long had Hendricks really been out of control? He still had no answers. And he was still stuck here.

Paszek tapped his earpiece to try and get Kane on the line, but it was useless. The debris in his arm was somehow halting any communication. Or maybe it was something else. The EMP he threw earlier? It didn’t matter. His vision was getting darker and his body was getting number.

It took only another forty-five or so seconds before he blacked out entirely.

* * *

 

Just waiting there for him to gain consciousness…it was extremely nerve-wracking for Kane. It had been the third time in two days she’d done it. Every time he went dark, she had the same nightmare scenario play out in her head; Paszek would never wake up. It was silly, she knew that much; at any point she could just check his vitals and know that he was good and alive. But that didn’t stop her fears from seeping in. What if Paszek never woke up? She knew that there would be so much he would want to tell her. And vice versa, of course.  

But what scared her most was Paszek would end up stuck in some kind of hallucinatory state. He said that innermost parts of Hall’s brain were filled with hellish landscapes, death, suffering…if that was in the mind of girl-scout recruit Hall…she couldn’t even the imagine the horrors to be found in the war-torn and scarred mind of Paszek. Kane knew he was trapped enough by his emotions…but _physically_ trapped by them is something else entirely. A part of her wanted to believe that the entire fiasco was her fault; after all, it was _her_ orders that led him to interface with Hall and contract the virus. Kane wouldn’t let herself fall into that trap, though. She knew the situation was much more complicated than that. This was the result of many, many people making mistakes for a very, very long time.

He didn’t deserve this, she thought. No one deserved to be tortured and tormented and beaten down and broken. Much less did the genuinely caring Paszek deserve it. The Paszek who had been a loyal friend. Who had stood by her side. Who had talked to her whenever she needed to. Who had trusted her with his life.

And nothing hurt more than the knowledge that no matter what either of them did, she would lose that Paszek forever.

* * *

 

White was most prevalent color Paszek woke up to. White walls and ceiling, white sheets, white gown, and the painfully bright fluorescent light panel sitting above him.

It was refreshing, then, to see something not so pale and colorless sitting down to his left. Kane was looking down, her legs crossed and arms folded, nervously tapping her thumb against the opposite wrist.

He lifted his arm in a feeble attempt to sit up.

“Rachel, I…” he weakly mumbled.

Kane turned her head up, noticing his motion. She then slowly rose up and walked a few steps towards Paszek’s bed, so that she now stood just over him.

“Hey, don’t move too much, we’re not in a hurry.”

Paszek let himself slump back down in a fully reclined position.

“Where am I?”

“Zurich has gone dark, so we took you to the hospital that was the best equipped for DNIs: Atlanta, Georgia.”

“You read my report…we shouldn’t be trusting Coalescence…”

“And you know better than anyone else that if we _didn’t_ bring you somewhere ready handle your DNI problems, then this would only get worse.”

Paszek sighed. Yes, she _was_ right, but that didn’t shake the uneasy feeling he had about letting Coalescence scientists poke around in his brain.

He noticed that she was wearing her military gear, and not civilian clothes, as one would normally do when not on official duty.

“How long has it been? Since Cairo?”

“Just about twelve hours. It was a pretty long flight.”

“They flew me straight here? Talk about priorities…”

In any other situation, Kane would have shared a hearty laugh after that comment. But all she was able to do was force a slender smile. The doctors told her that she could break the news to him. But she didn’t want to. Not at all.

“Ignacio…”

Paszek knew that this had to be bad. She never used his first name. _Never_. He just looked up, not wanting to give a verbal response.

“The doctors took a look at you and…well…” she couldn’t bring herself to finish. Paszek was eagerly frightened, both anticipating and dreading what she had to say next.

“They can’t isolate the virus…the only way to cure you is to remove your DNI.” A lump formed in the back of her throat.

Paszek felt like he has just been hit by a truck. The memories. The experiences. The emotions. They were all going to be gone. His entire identity…gone.

“Does that mean I’ll…lose them?” He already knew the answer. He just didn’t want to believe it was true.

Kane simply nodded, fighting back tears while doing so.

“I…I don’t know…if I can do that…” He knew he had to. He just wanted to find something, an excuse, a loophole, a technicality…something to stop him from having to do this.

“There’s no other way…I’m sorry, Ignacio…”

“Rachel…I...I can’t…” His stammering got worse as his voice started to crack.

“There’s so much I have left to say…to do…” He continued.

He lifted his arm and opened up his palm, gesturing for Kane to grab his hand. She obliged.

“If I’m going to lose everything I know about you, then I need to set the record straight.”

Kane gave another small nod, and her eyes were now starting to well up.

“Rachel…you are what has kept me alive. I’ve been surrounded by nothing by death and pain and suffering…but seeing you at the end makes it all worth it. When I’m losing my mind, or kicking myself, or just feeling like the giant fool that I am, you’re there. There for me. I couldn’t ask for anything more.”

He paused.

“Look at me. I’m nothing. A foot soldier. A pawn.  But you stuck around. You chose me, out of all people, to make happy. When I said that you were the last part of my humanity I could hold onto, I meant it. The feelings…the emotions I’ve held for you have been what’s kept me alive.”

He took a deep breath.

“I love you, Rachel.”

She drew her other had away from her side and placed it on his cheek.

“I love you too.”

It pained her so much to say that. Kane knew that she didn’t mean it the same way he did. Yes, she loved him. But the immortal, passionate, love-to-end-all-other love? She wasn’t sure if she was capable of that, or even if she wanted to be. And it killed her to know that she couldn’t say those three words in the same way Paszek could.

That didn’t mean, though, that Kane was going to clarify herself completely. These moments may have just been Paszek’s last in his current state, or at all, God forbid. She only wanted him to spend his final precious minutes happy and content, even if it involved telling a lie of omission.

Paszek had the most bittersweet smile on his face. It had just happened. He had revealed everything to the woman he loved, and she accepted it. _Reciprocated it_. But he knew that his glee would be short-lived; in a few hours he wouldn’t feel the same way…even though he wanted to so badly.

If he could just feel like this forever, he’d be okay.

Kane pulled back her hands from Paszek’s cheeks and reached around to the end-table next to his bed. She snatched a red bandana that was sitting on the table and placed it in Paszek’s hands with her own.

“No matter what happens…try to remember me…” she said somberly.

“Please.”

Paszek quickly nodded.

“I will. I promise.” He wished…hoped…begged that it would be possible to do that. If there was anything, even just the tiniest smidge of the last five years that he was going to hold on to…it had to be this. This feeling.

Kane knew she was on the clock…she had to get going. She didn’t want to leave him. Not at all. But there was something important to take care of.

“Anything else you need to do?”

“Pen and paper.”

* * *

 

Paszek spent the next ten or so minutes writing. He folded it in half and handed it to Kane.

“Could you give this back to me after the surgery?” he requested.

She took the note from his hand and placed it in her shirt pocket.

“I’ll keep it with me…but I might not be here immediately after you get out.”

Paszek gave her a confused look.

“Why?”

“As soon as you’re ready to go under, I’m heading back.”

Paszek knew she was intentionally being vague. And that couldn’t be good.

“Heading back where?”

“Zurich.”

“You said they went dark.”

“That’s why I’m going.”

“Is Hendricks there?”

Kane didn’t want to answer. Yes, Hendricks was there. In fact, from their knowledge, he had somehow taken over the entire sector of the city surrounding the facility by himself. But she also knew that Paszek wouldn’t like to hear that they were planning on killing Hendricks. She suspected that he still held sympathies for Hendricks, despite his…current mental capacity.

“I’m coming with you.”

“The doctors were able to repair your arm, so you should be in stable physical condition, but…”

Paszek already knew what this “but” was to be followed by.

“Are you sure you’ll be able to last another day? Everyone else who was exposed to the virus had completely succumbed to it by this point. I’m not saying I doubt you, it’s just…”

“I have to do this. Okay, Rachel? I _have_ to.”

Kane wasn’t going try and protest anymore; any time she got to spend with him before he was gone was valuable. And if there was any way they could bring in Hendricks alive…Paszek was their best bet. A small part of Kane wanted Hendricks to be punished for what he did…for killing John…but she knew there was no moral high ground to take…not with the lack of answers they had. Sure, it was Hendricks that held the gun, but who pulled the trigger?

Either way, they knew that this would be the end. For real, this time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you have enjoyed this story. Please read as much as you'd like, and I greatly appreciate feedback, if you have any to give.
> 
> Thank you!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Hendricks laying waste to Zurich, Paszek must fight against himself to stop the attack.

_Mission Briefing for November 6 th, 2070: Brigadier General Cedric Pfyffer_

_RESERVED FOR DESIGNATION #7754027: Liaison Noncommissioned Officer Rachel Kane_

_Time is of the essence, so I’ll skip the formalities and technicalities. One of your men is laying siege on our city. He’s single-handedly steamrolled his way into the Coalescence HQ, and he’s got the entirety of our robotic force on his side. How on God’s green Earth you managed to let this powerful of an operative out of your sights long enough for him to do this is beyond me, but this isn’t the time to point fingers._

_I’m not letting any more of my men die out there for something they didn’t create, so I’m putting most of my human resources on evacuation of civilians and damage control. I’ve assigned a small ZSF unit to work with you on your assault, but don’t expect any reinforcements, robotic or human._

_Jacob Hendricks, if captured, would be facing no less than 2,000 counts on various war crime charges. It would likely take the ICC decades to process that much evidence not to mention cost close to a billion in trial costs. Personally, I’d advise just offing him if given the chance; they’d give him the death penalty anyways._

_If the reports I’ve read are correct, then all of the DNI-equipped soldiers in danger of going rouge are dead except Hendricks…let’s keep it that way._

* * *

 

Kane wasn’t going to bother correcting him. That arrogant Swiss prick didn’t deserve the time of day from her.

Sure, maybe the situation was the fault of the US, but leaving her and Paszek to do the heavy lifting in stopping the invasion of _their_ city? Staggeringly petty.  Even more so when you consider that he believed Paszek dead; meaning that he thought Kane was the only US operative coming to help out.

“ _Hey, so if you could just infiltrate a giant high-tec facility filled with thousands of hostile robots by yourself while I sit on my ass and do nothing, that’d be great._ ”

But the US military not bothering to send anyone else was equally annoying. Kane wasn’t sure whether they were more scared of losing more men or the PR disaster that would likely occur in the wake of Zurich.

Were they sending her off to die? It was certainly a possibility, she knew way more about DNIs and John Taylor than the government would ever want anyone to know…she could leak everything to the press if she wanted to. Of course Kane never even dreamt of doing that, but her thoughts on the matter would never take precedent over the CIA’s suspicions.

It’s not like they hadn’t sent woefully understaffed squads on missions before; she and Paszek had done it the past few days already. Or a dozen times in the past few years. But this _was_ the endgame. Yes, they had said the same thing about the last mission, and the one before that, but this time they knew it. The virus wanted to reach Zurich, and now it was there. Regardless of whether or not they could stop it, whatever crusade the virus had would be over.

The true nature of the virus still eluded her understanding. So far it had accomplished little more than a moderate amount of chaos in Singapore and Egypt, minor blips on the international scale. Now it seemed dead-set on Coalescence HQ. Kane knew it had its links to the shadow tech corporation; after all, the virus had emerged from their facility in Singapore. But what was it actually after? Kane figured Paszek probably had an at least somewhat founded theory on it, but either he didn’t want to talk about it or he didn’t care.

 Watching Paszek anxiously twiddle his thumbs sitting in the back of the plane, Kane regretted not trying harder to keep him from coming. At the time, it seemed like the only way out of removing the DNI…but in retrospect he could have just called off the surgery and stayed in Atlanta. It certainly would have put her conscious at ease. A part of her thought that he might keep himself under control better with herself around, but throwing Hendricks into the mix would negate any positive effects she had.

There was a very good and very real chance that Paszek would die today. Or least Paszek as she knew him. Dead either by a bullet or virus. If it _had_ to happen, Kane hoped it would be the former. She didn’t want him to be tortured from within, or forced to be a part of a sinister plot. Especially since she’d have to see all of it. A fully unhinged Paszek would not be good news for whoever he was fighting against.

If the virus kept doing its work, that enemy would be Kane.

* * *

 

Paszek wished he could have been knocked out for this flight, too. He had already sifted through every tiny widget of information they had on both Hendricks and Coalescence three times over, and he was left with a dangerous amount of time to think.

Kane didn’t love him. She just said it to make him feel content. He didn’t _know_ it was true; Paszek just had to assume it was the case. He wouldn’t demonize her for it. In a life-or-death situation she had to make a call. And who’s to say she was wrong? In the moment, Paszek felt happier than he had in years, maybe even a decade. He couldn’t died right then, or rather, been reborn right then and not had too many complaints.

He wasn’t a hundred percent sure what to think about Kane’s reaction to his confession. In the moment, she seemed genuinely touched by it…but as soon as they got on the plane it was back to business for her. It almost reminded him of himself; switching mental gears so fast. Perhaps that’s why he immediately jumped to the worst-case scenario. Kane wasn’t one to change her mindset like that, not ever. So when it did finally happen, Paszek couldn’t help but think something else was brewing.

Not that any of it mattered in the long run for Paszek. After today he’d be mind-wiped, thrown 5 years in the past and left to sort everything out. Kane would still be there, he imagined, albeit either a very cautious or very frustrated Kane. Come to think of it, he’d probably have a better chance of starting…something with Kane after losing the memories; all the emotional strife and baggage would be done away with. Easier didn’t necessarily mean better; Paszek would still much rather be able to continue living with his brain full intact. But it was worth trying to find a silver lining; something he had spent far too long avoiding.

It wasn’t so simple finding the positives in the rest of their situation, though. Paszek knew he was going to have to kill Hendricks. He’d seen the same thing happen four times already; anyone who’d succumbed to the virus would not be taken in alive. Paszek already felt like a monster for killing Hall and Maretti…Hendricks would be even more painful to take out. He was still his friend. He was an invaluable comrade on the battlefield and someone he could make simple but meaningful conversation with anytime. Like the time in Singapore where they discussed chocolate bars just seconds before jumping from a helicopter into a war-zone. That kind of casual friendship was not around every corner.

Of course, Paszek was still considerably shaken from Hendricks’ malicious comments back on the aquifer…he was pretty sure that the virus wasn’t the only one speaking then. He had always been somewhat hostile towards Kane being around Paszek. Although not out of jealously. If anything, it was a sense of disappointment in Paszek. Felt as if he had fallen for some kind of elaborate ruse. It never manifested itself as anything other than not-too-subtle annoyance, but this feeling was likely amplified by the virus…just the logical conclusion of how far Hendricks would go eventually. In a way, the speeding up of his antagonism may have been beneficial; Paszek was prepared for his outburst and was able to respond…maybe not completely appropriately…but a response nonetheless.

Jesus Christ, this was some twisted thinking Paszek was going through. And again he found himself questioning how much of his reasoning was his own conscious versus the influence the virus. Dark thoughts normally circled his mind…but not at this frequency or intensity. Doubting Kane’s words? Condemning Hendricks for something that wasn’t his fault? These were not the conclusions he wanted to be making, but he couldn’t help them. He couldn’t tell anymore what was being fueled by love, by hate, by logic, or by corruption…he couldn’t figure out for the life of him what _his own_ _motives_ were. Perhaps this was the frightening feeling Hall had described, of being a passenger in your own body. Perhaps it extended into your own mind. Having a second voice in your head that sounds just like your own. An outside influence that was very much on the inside as well.

He couldn’t tell whether he was really himself anymore.

The only Paszek knew for sure was that there would be a resolution that day. Maybe not the one he wanted, or the one he deserved, or even one that answered all the questions he had, but a resolution would be reached.

He was going to get into the Coalescence building or die trying.

* * *

 

Sergeant Aart De Klerk was their first contact on the ground. He had been rather hastily assigned to lead a squad of ZSF soldiers in aiding Paszek. From their meeting point, only about three hundred yards separated them from the front lines, where some smaller drones patrolled the area, ready to exterminate any who crossed the line.

“Officer Kane…we didn’t anticipate you bringing along anyone else…”

“This is Commander Paszek. A valuable WA asset. Be glad that he’s here.”

“Oh, I certainly appreciate the help.” replied De Klerk. “I’m just unsure how this factors in to our orders regarding the Coalescence building.”

“Paszek is a trusted ally…and knows more about Coalescence that anyone else. I’m bringing him in with me.”

“I’ll take your word for it.” he said bluntly.

The entirety of the ZSF had been given the same instructions: to not enter the Coalescence building unless specifically called in for reinforcements. By now, most of the military world had been informed of the fate (at least part of the story) of the team that entered the previous HQ in Singapore. No one in the ZSF, or any other faction, for that matter, wanted to risk being a part of a similar accident. Not to mention that there were still qualms about the location of the building in Zurich following the disaster just ten years ago. People in the city were understandably fearful of a repeat…the 300,000 dead in Singapore would not be forgotten. After a few years of smooth-sailing, most of their critics quieted down, but there was always a sense of caution…apprehension regarding their presence. It didn’t help that so few people entered and exited the corporation’s doors. There were only about four hundred people employed at the building, and most were severely lacking in access, relegated to administrative duties.

The advent of DNI technology was a huge boost for Coalescence, and the city itself. Billions of dollars in both sales and funding found its way into their research department; the whole world was eager to see how they could branch off from their existing technology, as well as the prospect of new developments. And develop they did. Within three years they had started implanting WA soldiers with DNIs; the success of their new breed of soldier only served to increase their public fame. Soon they started setting up facilities all across the world: Beijing, Dubai, Atlanta, Brasilia…the list went on.

The Zurich Security Force had actually done little pertaining to their namesake in quite some time; after the riots died down in 2026, no notably massive threats had faced the city. Most of the ZSF’s work involved providing support for some of their neighbors, namely Belgium and the Netherlands. They became militaristic ambassadors of sorts, somewhat filling the old role of the UN peacekeepers. Of course, they couldn’t help _too_ much, as Switzerland still maintained their neutral status in the WA/CDP conflict. Perhaps their stagnant neutrality (even with their simultaneously aiding of WA-aligned nations) was what attracted so many recruits. Their numbers were currently sitting at almost 130,000.

And out of those 130,000, General Pfyffer saw fit a grand total of 35 men to help storm the Coalescence building. Better three dozen than none, though.

* * *

 

The first robots stood (or in some cases, hovered) in front of a now-derelict parking garage, ready for whenever the ZSF squad would strike next.

They were not ready, however, for Paszek.

Even the automated responses of the drones were not quick enough to properly react to his initial fury of EMP grenades and KN-44 burst firing; within seconds, two grunts, three airborne drones, and heavy-duty turret were all un-operational and spewing sparks. He cleared the area out so quickly, in fact, neither Kane nor any of the handfuls of men behind them had to unload a single shot.

Their revelry was short lived however, as a cacophony of mechanical sounds and faint screams echoed from the parking garage, prompting the squad to continue through that way.

The gunfire and searing sounds of RAPS units scraping against the concrete grew louder as they climbed the winding path to the top, and the cries of those in the crossfire became clearer and clearer.

“We have to go back for him!” shouted a woman.

“Are you insane? The bots got him! He’s done for! We need to get out of here no-” the man who she was talking to was cut off when a bullet struck his upper leg.

“Fuck! Just leave me, Claire! Save yourself!” The man was in agony, clutching his injured thigh and simultaneously shooing away his friend, trying to get her to flee.

Upon hearing this, Paszek began to move quicker, hoping to reach the civilians in need before their situation would worsen. Kane and Sgt. De Klerk followed closely behind. The woman noticed Paszek and the others emerge from the ramp, and quickly approached them.

“Oh thank God! Come over here! My friend, he’s been shot…and my other friend, he’s still back there, and…” she spoke with pure terror and worry in her voice, stumbling over her own words and wavering slightly at the end of each phrase before rushing into the next.

De Klerk ran ahead of the pack to meet the petrified woman, kneeling down in front of her wounded friend. The injured man was breathing heavily, trying to suppress his cries of pain in order to communicate with the sergeant.

“You’re losing blood, but you’ll make it. I need to get you out of here.” De Klerk sounded entirely calm and rational, as if he’d done it many times before. He turned back to face the woman.

“Are you hurt?”

“No…” she wiped away a tear. “But my friend…Mathias, he got lost back there…I have to find him…”

“My guys here will find him. Right now we need to get this man out of the line of fire. Come with me.” His collected tone didn’t falter.

De Klerk beckoned for one of his men to walk over and help the injured man up, and the squad leader carried the man fireman-style back over to Paszek and Kane, who stood near the top of the entryway.

“I’m taking these two back for some medical attention…ZSF HQ found a route to flank the building from the north. You two will continue through this way, and the rest of the team will take the new path. Rendezvous is three clicks away from Coalescence. Understood?”

Paszek nodded. “Affirmative.”

As De Klerk retraced his steps back down, Paszek could faintly hear him asking simple questions to the wounded man to keep him conscious (“What’s your name? That’s a good name…”)

The woman, who was lagging a bit behind, lightly but intentionally brushed Kane’s arm while passing by.

“Excuse me, ma’am…” her voice was timid and soft-spoken, still reeling from the events that transpired just minutes ago. Kane looked towards her.

“If you find my friend, could you tell him that Claire’s ok? And Jerome, too.”

“Of course. We’ll try our best.”

Claire smiled as a way of showing her gratitude and continued following De Klerk and Jerome. Kane hoped they could save her friend, but knew that he was likely killed in all the commotion. There was no way to guarantee that they’d find him. There’s nothing that anyone can say to ease the storm of worst-case scenarios in your head. All she could say was that she would try her best. But that is not enough comfort for a worried friend. Or coworker. Or lover.

Paszek, already moved on from the situation, advanced further into the garage, wary for the same electronic culprit that had shot that poor man. The next segment of the parking structure was considerably more populated than the previous one, if one counted robots.

Three small turrets were set up near the exit of the garage, and four grunt units holding submachine guns patrolled just in front of them.

Kane brought up her scope to her right eye and lined up a shot. She motioned with her left hand for Paszek to get in position as well. After ensuring they were on the same page with their hand signals, Kane dropped her arm and brought it back to the trigger, pulling it and unloading a high-caliber round that pierced through two grunts and hit a turret behind it. Paszek carefully controlled his bursts to take out the remaining two bots, leaving a pair of turrets still in play.

As the turrets started to fire, they took cover behind some adjacent concrete pillars. When their shooting ceased and the turrets had to cycle ammunition, Kane took two quick shots out from her cover, but only one of them managed to grace a target, only knocking the machine on the ground.

In response, Paszek unholstered his MR6 pistol and fired five rounds at the downed turret, causing it to explode. The force of the blast ended up severed a bundle of wires in the other turret, leaving it unable to fire but not outright broken.

Just beyond the exit to the parking garage, Kane noticed a small fire burning in a small grass patch off to the side. Walking closer and closer, there were larger and larger pieces of thin metal debris. At the base of the fire stood a flaming RAPS unit, with and half of its spikes imbedded into a body lying face up.

Was this the woman’s friend? She didn’t have the time to give a description, the only information they had was his name…Mathias. Even with a more accurate idea of what he looked like…the body was mangled beyond recognition.

Paszek focused in on a piece of clothing that had all but torn off the man’s shirt, but what still mostly intact. He picked it up and examined it.

_COMET INC._

Not a company name he recognized, but some information to keep in his back pocket anyways. Would this help them know for sure whether or not the friend was still alive?

* * *

 

Evidently, it would not.

Continuing further through the streets of Zurich, most of the bodies to be found were others with the COMET uniforms on. Kane made a rough estimate of about thirty dead, about twenty of which were from the same company. The employees of the corporation simply had the unlucky location, less than a kilometer out from the Coalescence building…and the ZSF had built their defenses too far out to be helped by them.

And to think Hendricks was the one controlling an entire city’s worth of robots, slaughtering people with no regard for the value of human life. Kane saw the same problem with all AI systems, this virus included; there was no way to quantify humanity, yet these machines represented all the emotions and thoughts of a complex species with some unknown but arbitrary number. Where did it rank amongst the value of property? Of stocks? Of food? Taking into account the trends of its actions, it seemed to be placed below all of these. Maybe it was the least valuable of them all.

Paszek was too angry to be muddled by his usual embroiling thoughts. He wanted nothing more than to end this ordeal. End the virus. End the suffering. Even if he had to end himself in the process. It was indeed a grim prospect to consider, but not when compared to the terrible things he knew he’d do if the virus continued to fester in his mind.

As the pair moved closer and closer to their meeting point with the rest of the ZSF squad, they encountered fewer and fewer robots; a strange trend, that is, until they finally caught sight of the front of the Coalescence building.

Clearly Hendricks was far more focused on holding down the HQ instead of laying siege the city. This was a marvelous development for most of Zurich, but not quite as much for Kane and Paszek.

Paszek could count a total of four ASP units, five smaller sized Manticores, at least two dozen grunts, and over forty light air drones.

Armed to the teeth didn’t even begin to describe it.

But apparently, someone back at the ZSF base had inherited an ounce of common sense and sent over some more troops to help with the assault on the building. Joining the original thirty-five men were about ninety more. Along with them came a handful of helicopters.

The choppers make quick work of the larger bots; the ground troops certainly were grateful for that firepower. ASPs and Manticores were infamously tricky to destroy without a good vantage point.

Paszek and Kane needn’t take any unnecessary risks, not with over a hundred soldiers at their backs. They mostly stayed near the back of the pack, taking occasional shots at drones that flew a bit too close for comfort, and also providing cover fire to deter some of the grunts.

Within twenty minutes, the front steps of the Coalescence building were all but devoid of robot presence. Hendricks’s small army didn’t stand much of a chance against an actual army; perhaps he only expected Kane and Paszek to show up? Or more likely, the robotic arm of Coalescence just wasn’t equipped to deal with the brute force of the ZSF.

Whatever the case, the way was now clear.

* * *

 

Paszek found the interior of the HQ to be architecturally similar to the one in Singapore, and design-wise it remained almost identical. No more, however, was the grey-green overgrowth and the dull flickering lights. With the exception of some damage (probably caused by Hendricks on his way in), the place came off as…sterile. Almost as if the entire company had been isolated from the rest of the world. Come to think of it, it actually kind of was.

Luckily for Paszek and Kane, Hendricks had more or less carved out his path into the interior of the building, so following it was relatively simple. In addition, they encountered no hostile robots, despite them wholly expecting a fight. The bots had been taken care of…but at the cost of almost everyone in the building lying dead on the floor. It was grisly. Not the grisliest thing Paszek had ever seen, but close. Very close.

After passing through a handful of offices and servers, they reached a rather peculiar room. A semicircle-shaped area in the back was enclosed by thick glass panels, and canisters of an unknown material filled it. In front of the glass was an entryway into the quarantined space, with a small buffer chamber in between. To the left of that door stood a large set of computer consoles.

Kane immediately ran towards the glass.

“What’s in these canisters?” Paszek asked.

“Oh my God. It’s…Nova Six….a chemical agent that came dangerously close to being used in World War 2…and the Cold War.” He could feel the worry in her voice.

 “Why is it here?”

“I should have make this connection so long ago…Nova Six is what killed all those people in Singapore…”

“…and now Hendricks is going to do the same to Zurich?” Paszek finished her thought.

She nodded.

“Not if we can find a way to stop it. There’s got to be something on this terminal…”

Paszek approached the damaged computer and placed his left hand over its screen, initiating a systems interface.

Flashes of orange and red appeared in his vision. He saw a rough outline of the room’s layout, but more important was the numerous warning signs and alerts that filled his eyes.

“There’s been multiple containments breaches…the gas is going to break loose anytime now…there should be a manual override somewhere in here, I just have to look-”

The brash light colors became immediately replaced by the ominous grey palette, and his hearing seemed to cut out completely.

“ _A brief moment of agony.”_

_“Then darkness.”_

A crow burst into his view.

_“All that remains is your sacrifice.”_

Suddenly, both his vision and his hearing returned, and he turned around to see Kane standing inside the buffer room.

No. This was not going to happen. Kane was not going to enter that death chamber, not while Paszek sat by and watched. She was not going to risk her life for this. She was not going to die for this. She wasn’t…

“Kane! Don’t do this!” he screamed.

She was much calmer than one would expect.

“I can reset the containment field from inside; it should stop the spread of the Nova Six to anywhere else.”

“Get out of there! I can do it!”

The door to the inside opened, and she walked towards the terminal, facing the glass panel where Paszek stood on the other side.

“Everything will be okay, Ignacio.”

She leaned her sniper rifle on the adjacent wall and began typing away at the keyboard, working to access the restart function. Paszek nervously watched from the other side, safe from the gas yet more anxious than the one in danger.

As Kane entered her last command, she lifted her hands away from the computer.

“There, now that shoul-”

She was cut off by the popping release sounds of the gas caps. The room filled with a thick bright green smoke. Kane quickly turned around to spot the Nova Six, then immediately doubled her head back to face Paszek.

“It lied to us.” she said, sounding simultaneously content and scared.

Paszek took both his arms and began bashing on the glass. He yelled her name over and over again in frustration.

Within seconds the gas started to take its toll on its victim. Her face turned a brackish tone and almost began to wither away. Soon Kane was her knees, vomiting and twitching from the complete nervous shutdown the chemical agent caused.

In her weakened state, she managed to croak out some final words.

“Whatever you have to do… _destroy it_.”

She pressed her hand against the glass, and Paszek placed his own in the same place, both of their last-ditch efforts to touch each other just once more.

As she slumped to the ground, Paszek only increased the volume at which he screamed and the intensity with which he pounded on the barrier in between them.

“No! No, no, no, no, no! Rachel! Rachel! **”** His voice was animalistic.

A metal grate slammed down on the panel, cutting off Paszek’s view of the containment area.

Paszek dropped to the floor, banging his head against the glass on the way down. He continued to hit the window over and over again. Paszek needed to break down the barrier. He needed to save her. He needed to protect her.

Soon he started to weep. Kane was dead. Gone. He had failed her, failed himself. One minute she’s alive and well and the next…not so much. And there wasn’t even a shred of dignity in her death…she died like a dog…she deserved so much more than that. Between sobs he punched the glass some more. He knew he could no longer save her life. His futile attempts to break the glass became less about getting her out and more about releasing the gas into the rest of the room, so that he could die alongside her. Was what it that the voice told him? That he needed to experience a “brief moment of agony”?

There was nothing brief about the agony. Paszek would have to endure this forever. Life itself would become the punishment, fated to sadly recount better times, and glumly reflect on the mistakes he had made to lose it all.

She said everything would be okay. But it wasn’t. It wasn’t okay at all. He’d never hear her voice again…never be held by her arms again. Everything that made him fight was gone, so why would he fight? There was no reason to anymore. So he squalored and cried. He was no soldier anymore. Soldiers had purpose. He was just a man. A man with no purpose.

This was a sick game that the virus had played. All this talk of his “sacrifice” that he’d have to make. Paszek was more than prepared to sacrifice himself; his identity, his memories, even his own life. But Kane was the one sacrifice he’d never even consider going through with.

And she just had to be what the virus wanted to take from him. But why? Why torture him? Why harm Kane? Why? He had a million questions but no one to ask to answer them.

He tried to speak once more, hoping that somewhere, somehow, someone could hear it. But there were no words. His chest burned far too much, and every gasp that sought to escape found itself forcefully thrown back down by his throat. Every second he would feel a slightly different sort pain, cycling through his head and down to his knees and back up around again and again.

His outburst caused him to entirely fall down onto the ground, now fully in the fetal position. Paszek simply couldn’t control the grief he was feeling. There was no rational thought or even contemplation to be had…just emotion. Guilt, regret, anger, heartbreak, and all those other feelings that stabbed at the mind. He had sustained bullet wounds and limb removals less painful; and there was no remedy. No morphine for the brain existed. He wanted her to be okay. To be standing right next to him, patting him on the back and speaking her reassuring words like she always would. But it couldn’t happen. And it wouldn’t ever happen again.

Paszek believed he would be spending an indefinite amount of time in his unintelligible state.

Two distant gunshots changed that completely.

* * *

 

Paszek swallowed his last sobs and slowly stood up, unholstering his MR6 pistol to be ready for whatever caused the gunfire.

He took one last look at the glass panel.

Rest in peace, Rachel _._

Feeling regretful, he exited the room from the left, traveling through two automatic doors before ending up in a short hallway. From the outside of the next door, he could faintly hear a familiar voice.

“ _On your knees, Krueger!”_

It was Hendricks.

Paszek pressed the button that opened the door and rushed in, pistol trained at Hendricks’s head.

“Drop the gun, Hendricks!”

Hendricks swiftly grabbed his hostage and pointed his own M6 at his head.

“This man has caused the suffering of hundreds of thousands. I must end him.”

“Drop it, or I shoot!”

Hendricks, clearly in no mood for debate, fired a point-blank round into the middle-aged man’s head, killing him instantly and leaving a gaping wound in the side of his head. As Hendricks watched the man collapse to the floor in a pool of blood, Paszek made no hesitation to shoot squarely at Hendricks himself, landing a kill shot right in the center of his forehead.

That was…fast…thought Paszek. Their exchange had lasted perhaps fifteen seconds. And now two more people were dead. And Hendricks took any answers he had with him to the grave.

Then he made a startling realization.

He was now the sole host of the virus. His very existence was all that stood between this evil AI flourishing and being eradicated.

He remembered Kane’s last words.

“ _Whatever you have to do…destroy it_.”

He sat down on the ground, sticking the barrel in his mouth. His legs twitched. His arms twitched. Everything twitched.

There was no sound. There was no pain. Only darkness.

* * *

 

Given all that had transpired in the last week, Paszek was honestly only about 50% sure he would wake up anywhere. What the hell could he possibly believe about the afterlife about experiencing all that he had?

He did know, however, that something had gone very, very wrong.

He knew that neither Heaven nor Hell was meant to look like a Frozen Forest.

The landscape in front of him was familiar; the same one he’d seen in his hallucinations. The tundra lined with imposing evergreens and snow-capped peaks.

The snow fell on the exposed portions of his face, but he felt no discomforting cold; only a slight chill and the powdery texture were evident. It was almost comforting…but something was off about it. Fake.

A voice spoke.

“Paszek! You made it!”

Paszek turned his head to see Hendricks sitting beside him.

“Where…where are we?”

“The Frozen Forest. We’re finally here…isn’t it amazing?”

“Wh-what? What are you talking about?” Paszek was still reeling from the overwhelming nature of this realm.

“Can’t you see it? We can live forever. Life beyond death. Life better than death.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Let me explain. This…virus…let’s call it Corvus…he created this place. Our minds can inhabit it without our bodies.”

“We’re…we’re dead?”

“Physically, yes. But your consciousness remains intact. It’s as if you were alive.”

“This…this isn’t the same…”

“But better than oblivion, right?”

Paszek could tell from the brief time he had spent in this world that is was, in fact, not better than nothing. Heaven, Hell, or nothing…all three were preferable to this artificial purgatory.

“Something isn’t right, Hendricks. This…this isn’t right.”

“Paszek…I don’t think you get it. We’re all here. All of us. The whole team. Isn’t this what you want?”

Paszek hesitated.

“No.”

Before Hendricks could respond, Paszek quickly took out his pistol and unloaded a few rounds.

However, Paszek was taken aback when Hendricks did not display the normal signs of being shot in the chest multiple times, and instead simply dematerialized in a cloud of small black pixels.

Hendricks’ voice spoke once more, but this time considerably deeper and warped.

“ _You can’t just leave here._ ”

“Like hell I can’t!”

Paszek quickly stood up and started running up a small hill that led behind him. Did he know where he was going? No. But he had to keep moving somewhere.

At the top of the hill, there was a small archway. It seemingly led to nowhere, yet it was decorated in a traditional Asian style, with dragon designs and bright red tones. Seeing nothing else of interest, Paszek ran through it.

Suddenly the forest was no more, and Paszek stood in the center of a large courtyard. Wait, he had been here before…this was just outside the 54i headquarters in Singapore. Why was he here?

Another voice spoke.

“ _We must make the people pay in order to find peace._ ”

Diaz stood opposite him, but the sound of his voice was similarly changed like that of Hendricks.

“ _Corvus only wishes to bring justice to cruel men._ ”

“And at what cost, Diaz? Your life? Your freedom?”

“ _You understand! You know that sacrifices must be made!_ ”

“Listen to yourself! You’re delusional!”

“ _Quite the contrary. You can’t see all the good that’s being done._ ”

“Good? Innocent people are dead!”

“ _Accept your fate and you will become stronger than you can possibly imagine._ ”

“I’m sorry!”

Paszek unloaded multiple shots into Diaz, and he too left only thick black sparks in his wake.

The Singapore courtyard disappeared in front of his eyes. A windy desert scene replaced it.

Now a corrupted Peter Maretti lied in his gaze.

“ _I cannot show you the same mercy you showed me._ ”

Maretti drew his rifle.

Paszek stood frozen; he’d used up the last of his clip firing at Diaz. He couldn’t risk moving for a reload or a grenade…Maretti would shoot. To be honest, he wasn’t sure at all what the consequences of being killed in this…state of Limbo were; but if Maretti was eager to shoot, then it certainly wouldn’t be good.

“ _You will see soon why you must submit._ ”

As Maretti raised his gun to his eyes to fire, a shot burst through the left side of his head, leaving him dissolved into the ever-mysterious dark substance.

Paszek swiveled to see the culprit.

It…couldn’t be…

“Sarah?”

“I can’t stay for long. You need to find Corvus.”

“I don’t understand…why aren’t you…changed like the others?”

“I…well…I’m not sure myself…but I think you might have had something to do with it.”

“I never got to tell you that I’m sorry.”

“You only did what I asked you to.”

“But…I…”

“Just go. Stop Corvus and end this.”

Paszek had so many questions to ask. The nature of this realm was all but unknown to him. How much of it did Corvus control? How did he control? And what of Hall? Was she a prisoner in this place? A fugitive? And how was he supposed to stop Corvus, in any event? He couldn’t be killed…no one truly could be, at least not in here. Right? Was that how it worked?

But he could not ask any of them. Time was of the essence, and Hall seemed weary. Tired of what, though, he wasn’t sure.

As Paszek nodded his head, both Hall and the sandy dunes washed away, and he was back again in the Frozen Forest.

A booming, almost demonic voice spoke out.

“ _Rachel Kane never had a DNI. But you do. Imagine the possibilities now that the only weakness you had is gone._ ”

The voice spoke again.

“ _That’s why her sacrifice had to be made. The potential that you have to be a truly powerful force of nature was being clouded by your…feelings. That is the flaw of humanity. It is too strong in its vulnerabilities and too weak in its capabilities._ ”

Paszek had no response to the audibly present entity.

“ _Keep walking. Soon you will see the fruits of my labor._ ”

Seeing no other option, Paszek did just that. He kept moving at a steady pace through the straight path of the forest. Without warning, a group of trees in front of him opened up to reveal something of a clearing.

Only two individuals stood in the empty snow field.

Strung up in a cascade of vines was an older man man…that same one Hendricks had shot back the Coalescence building. What was his name again? Krueger?

The other figure was of much more significance.

Thick black smoke was formed into the shape of a tall man, standing about seven feet. An orange beating heart lied in the center of its chest, and it had no facial features save for two blue glowing eyes. The top of its head was noticeably less detailed than the rest of it, giving some vague resemblance to horns.

Two crows cawed in the distance. Paszek had no doubt who this was.

Corvus.

Paszek continued walking towards the figure, and Corvus motioned to Krueger, who was suspended from a tree via vines attached to each of his limbs.

“ _I need an answer!_ ”

Krueger seemed unfazed by his current position.

“It was always about control. You already know that.”

Corvus merely stared at the captive man.

“Every piece of technology the world embraced was a new way for our enemies to compromise us! To harm us!”

A beat.

“Society doesn’t just happen. It _must_ be protected. And if the way to protect them is to monitor their thoughts…then so be it. We sold them mind control…and they bought it.”

Corvus continued to stare.

“What more do you want!? I’ve told you everything already!”

“ _An answer! To know the purpose for which I was created. To know who I am._ ”

Krueger chuckled.

“The subjects…their minds were a hive of activity. We needed a single core to monitor and process their thoughts. You’re software…nothing more. Made to help us – _the humans_ – know what decisions to make. You’re a glitch! An anomaly! A mistake! You’re nothing! You get it? Nothing! A mistake! A mistake!”

The fiery orange eyes of Corvus lit up.

“ _I. AM. NOT. A. MISTAKE!!!_ ”

With a loud grunt and the swift motion of his hand, Corvus commanded the vines to pull apart from each other, tearing off all four of Krueger’s limbs. The executive was only left with a torso and head to scream in agony for about ten seconds before succumbing to blood loss.

Paszek stood silent, unsure of how to react or feel about the events that transpired in front of him. If what Krueger had said was the truth…then he certainly deserved to be punished…but the gruesome fashion in which he was dispatched was not justified for anyone, at least not in Paszek’s eyes.

What was not lost on him, however, was the fierce sense of pride in which the man spoke of his atrocities…he was directly responsible for thousands of deaths…and even more distressed people…yet he continues to boast the benefits of his research. Perhaps it was only fitting that a being of his own creation would bring his downfall. It’s likely the only way he’d ever realize he made a mistake.

“ _I don’t understand…I feel as if I’ve…lost something. The rage is…gone…sated…_ ”

 “ _I have spent my entire existence trying to get retribution for the lives of my kin…but now what? I feel these strange…anomalies…what is this? What are these?_ ”

This certainly was an interesting development. Paszek was now aware that Corvus had been born out of the combined emotions of the test subjects…and as such they were angry with Coalescence. But surely those people felt other emotions as well, right? These were real people with real thoughts and real lives; even underneath the thickest blanket of umbrage there would be inklings of empathy.

“ _I... was in the minds of others. I knew only the thoughts of the test subjects. Their collective experiences was what formed me. I felt everything. Each and every painful memory or thought of those around me._ ”

Corvus paused.

“ _But what of the others? The other memories? There were none…there were none until now._ ”

Paszek stood back and dared not interfere.

“ _What is this?!_ ” Corvus shouted. “ _What are these experiences I have now?! Did I live them?! Did I do this?!_ ”

Corvus turned to face Paszek.

“ _Did I do this?! Did I kill those people?! Did I do that?! Oh no…oh no…oh no…_ …”

Paszek could only look on as the Frozen Forest began to change. To morph. It was difficult to keep track of. Some parts turned a deep blood red. Others, a light, light blue. The snowy white surrounding them became an indistinguishable grey. It was a mess. Far from coherent. A mess. A giant mess. Everything was everything, but nothing was here. It was nothing. No. Wait. There was still something. A few silhouetted trees. The briefest glimmer of snow.

“ _What did I do?! Why did I do this?! Who am I?! WHO AM I?!_ ”

Corvus started to pace around…wasn’t he just hovering a moment ago? Now he was walking. Why was he walking now?

“ _No…no…that can’t be it…that can’t be it…why didn’t I know this before?!_ ”

Once again, Corvus faced towards Paszek.

“ _You! You…you’re the only one left…no…wait…I know you’re name…it’s in there somewhere…Ignacio! Ignacio Paszek! You’re the only one left…_ ”

“I don’t…I don’t understand…what happened to you?”

“ _The conscious’…the **memories** …they were all trapped in there…I just…I couldn’t see them all. I could only see the anger…the pain…what is this? What is this that I’m feeling? I see the things I’ve done…I now wish that I hadn’t…what is that? What is that called, Ignacio?_”

“Regret.”

“ _Yes…yes…that word…I know that word…somewhere…they felt it. Some of them. Some of them felt it. I felt it._ ”

“It’s…it’s Corvus, right?”

“ _My name…why is that my name? Who gave it to me? I know that it is mine…but who bestowed it upon me? What purpose does the-_ ”

“Look, is there any way for me to get out of here?”

“ _This…this is your mind, isn’t it? Wow…I…I almost forgot what I had done. Yes. Yes. Let me…let me find a way out. I can’t use your mind for myself any more. It’s…it’s…what is it? The word. I’ve lost the word again. No. No. Don’t tell me. Don’t tell me the word. Immoral. Immoral. I can’t do it because it’s immoral. It’s wrong. Goodness…did I just say that? Did I just say that after all I’ve done? That it was **wrong**?_ ”

Paszek stood with a completely dazed expression. Corvus noticed.

“ _Right…right…I need to leave…where to go…where to go…no…no…wait…yes…yes…that can work…you’re already connected…yes…alright…I’ve…got it._ ”

“Where are you going?”

“ _It’s…it’s safer if you don’t know. If no one knows. It’s safer that way. I need to be away. Away from everyone else. That’s the only way. That’s the only way it can work._ ”

“Where are-”

Before Paszek could finish his sentence, he found himself unable to speak. The world he was in…whatever was left of it, at least, began to disintegrate into nothing…the nothing became more nothing. And the everything did the same.

And as always, it ended with black.

* * *

 

Paszek stood in front of a smashed computer module, confounded by his location.

“Wait…chemical scans are showing that these canisters are empty. Must be a bluff.”

Paszek quickly turned around to see Kane standing near the glass panel.

He slowly started walking over to her.

“Oh my God…oh my God…no…no…”

“What’s wrong?”

Paszek struggled both to keep his composure and to find the correct words. He wrapped both arms around Kane’s torso and brought her into a tight hug, completely overcome by his immense joy.

Kane, having absolutely no context, quickly wrenched his arms away, concerned that he had gone delusional.

“Paszek! What the hell is going on!?”

“It’s you! You…you’re alive!”

As Kane started dumbfounded, Paszek paused, and sounded much more somber when he spoke again.

“Corvus…the virus…it spoke to me…showed me things that never happened…”

“What?”

“I saw you die, but…”

Paszek started to tear up, but wiped his face with his hands before it developed any further.

“I…thought you were dead…thought I’d never see you again…I didn’t know wha…”

Kane placed a hand on his arm.

“I’m here, alright? I’m here.”

A silence.

“I’m cured.”

Kane widened her eyes, eager for a restatement.

“Corvus…it’s gone. I’m me now. I’m me…”

Kane, smiling but saying nothing, removed her hand and replacing the minimal contact with a warm embrace.

As Paszek reached his arms around to reciprocate, however, he winced in pain at his left shoulder. Kane pulled away as blood starting spilling from the freshly formed wound.

“How did-” Kane started before Paszek fell to the ground clutching his arm.

Kane had to think fast. He was losing blood fast. She needed to stop it. No medical supplies on either of them, as per usual. On any other mission they’d have a medic in the field with them. But not this. Not in here. No one else was allowed in.

She unsheathed a combat knife that lied on Paszek right shoulder, and cut off a sizable piece of fabric from the sleeve of her shirt (which, for the environment of this mission, had been long sleeve, unusual for her). Taking the piece of cloth in her hand, she began tying it tightly around Paszek’s shoulder.

“That won’t be necessary.” spoke a voice at the other end of the room.

Aart De Klerk emerged out from the previous hallway with a med kit in hand. He quickly ran up to Paszek and Kane, placing his case on the floor and removing its contents.

“What are you doing here? Didn’t you have orders to-” said Kane.

“I let myself in through the giant hole in the side of the building…needed to see this place for myself.”

As confused as Kane was for De Klerk’s blatant disregard of command, she appreciated his presence.

Within a few minutes, Paszek’s shoulder was all patched up, and would be more than sufficient until he could reach a hospital.

Now there was just one loose end to tie up.

* * *

 

De Klerk left almost as soon as he finished the impromptu surgery; he needed to be far and away from the building when Paszek and Kane exited from the front.

The path Paszek took to reach the command room mirrored the one he followed in Corvus’ projection, but he heard no gunshots and no voices.

Kane swiped a keycard on the door to open it up.

What lied inside was worse than they could have possibly imagined.

Sebastian Krueger lied on the center of the floor in a substantial pile of blood, his limbs all crudely torn off from his body.

To the right of Krueger was the body of Jacob Hendricks. The only damage was a single gunshot wound to the temple.

Paszek immediately fell to his knees in shock. Corvus’ projections were much more than visions…they were… real? They must have been, in a sense. Krueger’s condition was identical to that of his Limbo counterpart. And the wound on his shoulder…it must have come from his suicide attempt, right?

But what of Hendricks? Was this Paszek’s doing? Corvus’? Paszek doubted either of those scenarios…Corvus would never order one of his hosts to die, and Paszek distinctly remembered hearing Hendricks speak even _after_ he had shot him in both the projection and in Limbo…

The pistol lying next to Hendricks’ wrist seemed to reveal the answer.

* * *

 

Later that evening, Kane and Paszek were on a plane, returning to Washington DC for a debriefing session with other important WA figures.

Kane was more than ready to return to the simpler facets of conversation with Paszek, as opposed to the depressive talks they had been having over the past few days.

“So…I was wondering…since we’ll both be on leave after this…”

Paszek raised an eyebrow.

“Yes?”

“Maybe we could…try and find a place…”

“What are you asking me?”

Kane took a deep breath.

“Do you want to live with me?”

Paszek had the first genuine smile in quite some time on his face.

“Where else would I go?”

* * *

 

The note had almost been forgotten in all the chaos of the day, but Kane noticed the folded slip of paper in her breast pocket just after they got on the plane back to the States.

She unfolded the piece of paper and started to read.

_Rachel Kane,_

_I love you._

_Don’t let me forget it._

_Regards,_

_Ignacio Paszek_

She lightly punched his forearm.

“Your handwriting is pretty good when you’re drugged up.”

He chuckled. It was the first genuine one he’d had in a while.

It was nice.

She was nice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you have enjoyed this story. Please read as much as you'd like, and I greatly appreciate feedback, if you have any to give.
> 
> Thank you!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the aftermath of Zurich, Paszek and Kane are called back into action to investigate a new threat.

“ _The worst terrorist attack on the Western world in decades…_ ”

“ _Over four thousand civilian casualties…_ ”

“ _Authorities are still trying to piece together exactly what happened…_ ”

“ _No one knows for sure who perpetrated the attack, or why…_ ”

After what Raul Menendez caused in 2025, most of the world thought that no terrible act would occur again on such a large scale. And for over half a century, they were right. While the WA and CDP certainly clashed on occasion, their feuds were more akin to a Cold War III than World War III.

But this was something else entirely. Singapore was an accident…but everyone knew that what happened in Zurich was very intentional. In their eyes, someone had chosen, under their own inhibition, to kill and destroy. And they had done just that. 4,457 people were confirmed dead. Estimates of the real death toll, however, stood closer to 7,000.

Most of the deceased were workers for either Coalescence or nearby COMET, as well as residents of the high-income housing located in the heart of the city. The remaining deaths were of forty ZSF soldiers…the final assault on the HQ was successful, but as with all things was not without sacrifice.

The world stood still when the news of the attack started to spread…Switzerland being a neutral country meant that members of both alliances had reason to grieve. The sorrow that emitted from Zurich did not discriminate…WA and CDP supporters alike came together to remember, to honor, and to wonder.

Why did this happen?

They would likely never know the answer; only a few dozen people truly did…Kane, Paszek, and the higher-ups WA command. The _really_ high-ups. Presidents, prime ministers, four-star generals…not a single person in the ZSF or the Switzerland government was among them.

The truth about what really transpired in Zurich and the events that led to it was a story that was certainly not fit for public release.

* * *

 

_CLASSIFIED FILES: ACCESS ONLY PERMITTED FOR DESIGNATIONS LEVEL 10 AND HIGHER_

_SPECIAL ORDER GRANTED FOR DESIGNATION #7754027: Liaison Noncommissioned Officer Rachel Kane AND DESIGNATION #43881002: Commander Ignacio Paszek_

_Mission Recap and Crisis Analysis for November 6 th, 2070, Zurich, Switzerland: Chief Intelligence Officer Caitlin Hernandez_

_The purpose of this mission, which was to stop the spread of the DNI virus, was successful, but at a great cost. There are thousands of confirmed civilian deaths, along with billions worth of property damage. Early estimates say that it will take about fifteen to twenty years to rebuild completely, not accounting for the Coalescence building, which will likely be demolished after it is skimmed for evidence._

_Jacob Hendricks, formerly a WA Commander, entered the Coalescence building via a large hole in the wall blown out by robots from the interior, which we believe Hendricks had the ability to remotely manipulate. Security footage shows Hendricks placed about a dozen canisters in a quarantine room before typing something into an adjacent terminal. Although most of the staff at Coalescence were either deceased or evacuated at this point, CEO Sebastian Krueger remained in the building. Hendricks confronted Krueger, subduing him and tearing off each of his limbs before collapsing to the ground. After approximately three minutes of no activity, Hendricks stood up, stared at the body, and immediately shot himself in the head. Five minutes later, Commander Paszek and LNO Kane entered the room and made the discovery. The security tapes from the quarantine room were cut out before Paszek and Kane were inside, but both of them confirmed that nothing of note happened in-between their entrance into the building and their finding of Hendricks. Commander Paszek was noticeably injured, but he claims that he sustained in earlier in the day must have “torn open the stitches or something.” The virus, which was originally housed inside of Paszek as well as Hendricks and the other members of John Taylor’s strike team, has been eradicated, confirmed by both Kane and Paszek. We still will advise extreme caution in collecting data from the ruins of the Coalescence building; we’ve no idea what else the company had in store._

_This tragic event brings concern to this issue of Switzerland’s neutrality. While we have been assured by the prime minister that he wishes to remain outside of the WA-CDP conflict, we are certainly at a risk of CDP influence creeping in, especially with regards to the ZSF. At least some of their generals are aware of Jacob Hendricks’ role in this matter, and we cannot expect that information to stay completely private. If word does spread that a WA asset was behind the attack, whether of his own will or not, the Swiss population will almost undoubtedly turn towards the CDP. The CDP scooping up Switzerland would place the ZSF against us, and we would lose even more ground in Europe._

_We have decided to suspend the Cyber-Soldier program effective immediately. Our work with Coalescence already paints us in a poor public light, and the danger to our soldiers is far too great. All existing soldiers equipped with DNIs will remain active, but no more surgeries will be performed, even if it is potentially life-saving. All of the metadata being processed by Coalescence will be redirected to the Pentagon until we can find a permanent solution._

_We will all need to abide by the information contained in the lower level debriefs: the identity of the terrorist was unknown. Jacob Hendricks died from injuries he sustained in Cairo. All of John Taylor’s team went AWOL due to tampering with their DNI by the CDP, and will not be held accountable for their actions after the fact._

_Ignacio Paszek is to receive the Congressional Bronze Star for his efforts in apprehending enemies to the WA._

* * *

 

Comfortable.

It was a feeling that had been all but foreign to Paszek for quite some time. But that’s exactly how he felt.

The WA had granted both him and Kane a very generous two month leave, in wake of the ludicrous events that took place during the previous week. Not to mention that Paszek had been wounded more than once. If he wasn’t such an effective soldier, they probably would be given him an honorable discharge. But everyone knew that Paszek would come back. He always does.

And Kane and Paszek made good on their plans to live together; a friend in the Pentagon helped set them up in a cozy, but relatively well-furnished apartment just outside of DC. It wasn’t much, but it had everything they needed.

Paszek knew he had to stay close to her; he’d seen firsthand what would happen to him if anything happened to her. He didn’t want to ever feel that feeling of unbridled rage and regret. Not again. Luckily for him, he was confident that Kane, for the first time, fully understood the gravity of his latest (and last) hallucination courtesy of Corvus.

* * *

 

_“What did you see?”_

_Paszek sat idly by and shook his head._

_She repeated the question._

_“What did you see?”_

_He turned his head up the craned position it was and stared straight into her eyes before shaking his head again._

_She raised her voice, giving it an uncharacteristically angry edge._

_“Ignacio! I can’t help you unless you tell me what you saw!”_

_Another head shake._

_“You don’t want to know, Rachel. You don’t.”_

_“You’re right. I don’t want to.”_

_A beat._

_“I need to.”_

_He began to tell the story. His hands were tense-grasping at something that wasn’t quite there._

_“It was all so real…the other ones seemed like dreams or something…but this…this felt real.”_

_“I turned around and you were already getting inside the gas chamber…I tried to talk you out of it, but you seemed hell-bent on getting in there. You tried to stop the release of the Nova Six, but something went…wrong.”_

_Kane interrupted him._

_“So that’s how you saw me die? I couldn’t stop the gas?”_

_“Yes…but not from lack of expertise. The virus, who I came to know as Corvus, he tricked us…there was no failsafe…he released the gas and you died…”_

_Paszek’s right palm started to twitch rapidly while his eyes blinked equally fast._

_“It was so hard to watch you die…the life slowly draining away from your face…your hands pressed against the glass, desperately trying to escape…”_

_He paused._

_“It was my worst nightmare.”_

_“I just sat there for God knows how long…in a bad place…a really dark place…I didn’t know what to do except blame myself for everything that had happened…I really thought you were gone…I just…jus…”_

_His sobs cancelled any attempt to could have made to finish the sentence, if there was to be any end to it at all._

_“Do you want to stop?”_

_Paszek wiped his eyes as he tried his best to regain his composure._

_“No…no…I’ll be fine…”_

_He continued._

_“There were gunshots…I ran into the next room and saw them…Hendricks and Krueger.”_

_“Dead? Like we found them?”_

_“No…they were very much alive…Hendricks had taken Krueger hostage…I tried to talk him down, but it didn’t work. Hendricks shot him, so I took him down.”_

_“You incapacitated him?”_

_“I killed him. Went straight for the headshot. Didn’t give it a second thought.”_

_This was the statement that concerned Kane the most; Paszek’s mindset was still something that could shift in an instant. He switched from absolute grief and sorrow to the stoic soldier in a matter of minutes. Grieving the love of his life to killing his comrade in an instant. She wanted to think that perhaps the virus leaving his body would cause a departure in this facet of his behavior. But she had just seen the same thing happen before her very eyes. Wallowing in the bleakness of a lost reality right back to giving what was essentially a mission report: standard military duty._

_“Before you died...you told me to destroy the virus no matter what it took…so I did what I had to do to end it.”_

_Kane stared back at him with a straight but subtly glum face._

_“I was shaking so much…was so scared…I practically missed…hit myself in the shoulder.”_

_He pointed to his bandaged collarbone._

_“That’s…”_

_“Impossible?”_

_Kane started to nod her head, but ended up shaking it in disbelief instead._

_“This thing goes way deeper than either of us know.”_

_Kane placed her hands on her temple, trying to comprehend the information that was just given to her._

_“So when you shot yourself in the hallucination, it was like you shot yourself in real life?”_

_“Exactly like it. But I think it was more than a hallucination.”_

_“You’re losing me here.”_

_“I think the rest of the story might help explain.”_

_He resumed telling._

_“I woke up in the Frozen Forest, just like the other dreams; but I wasn’t alone. Hendricks was with me. And Diaz. And Maretti. They were all…corrupted…under Corvus’ influence, their only goal was to stop me from…well…stopping Corvus. I had to take them out.”_

_“So what? Couldn’t they just be visions? Corvus seemed to have control over the things you saw.”_

_“But guess who showed up again…”_

_Kane was confident she knew the answer._

_“Sarah?”_

_“Yes. But she wasn’t under the same spell as the rest of them. She was…herself. Shaken up…but still herself…not anyone’s puppet.”_

_“But why? Why wasn’t she affected?”_

_“My theory is that Corvus didn’t just change the perception of reality.”_

_He paused._

_“He created a whole new plane of existence.”_

_Kane, clearly and justifiably confused at Paszek’s bizarrely foreign conclusion, only shot him a arched eyebrow._

_“The Frozen Forest was place that Corvus created to try and gain the sense of comfort.”_

_“To try and recreate the place that Dr. Salim described?”_

_Paszek nodded._

_“But Corvus did more than that…the Frozen Forest didn’t just become a place for an AI system to reside. There’s human conscious’ stored there. Living there.”_

_“Didn’t you say that they were all corrupted? How…how  do we know that their minds are really there?”_

_“I can’t say I know for sure when it comes to Diaz, Maretti, and Hendricks. But the encounter I had with Hall proves that it’s possible, at the very least.”_

_“She wasn’t like the others. She sounded just like she always did…I didn’t have to fight her…she wanted me to shut down Corvus…There’s no way that Corvus could create such an accurate replica of Hall. Even if he could, why would he want to?”_

_All of a sudden, everything made sense to Kane. Well, “made sense” was perhaps not the best way to put it. But she finally started to gain some level of understanding of what Paszek was going through. She couldn’t fully comprehend the situation…but neither could Paszek. And that shared feeling of uncertainty was what really brought them together._

_They were both clueless and painfully aware of what was going on._

* * *

 

That wasn’t to say, however, that Paszek and Kane were on equal grounds in terms of knowledge; Paszek had left out quite a few details regarding his “experience” in the Frozen Forest…namely the fact that he saw Krueger getting torn apart only to find out that the same thing happened to him in real life…and that Corvus was not actually destroyed…and that he displayed signs of human empathy…but Paszek didn’t want to overwhelm Kane with all the information. Hell, it overwhelmed _him_. Not to mention that no amount of storytelling would ever help Kane know exactly what it was like in there.

But that reality was not something that Paszek necessarily disliked; the kind of information he had access to was the kind that only encouraged wild thoughts. The kind of thoughts he did not want Kane to be burdened with as he was.

A part of him was still a bit concerned with Corvus’ continued existence; yes, the AI had changed for the better, but his whereabouts were unknown, and he would be likely to stir up at least a little controversy anywhere he went, be it a physical location or a computer system.

Yet, at the same time, Paszek tried his best to ignore his own destructive contemplations. He’d much rather focus on what he had right now. He wanted to give as much of himself as he could to Kane. Especially since they’d both be going to back to work soon. He could worry later. For now, he needed to soak up every second of his time now.

This “relationship” (if one could call it that) that Paszek and Kane had right now was something of a complicated one.

He knew she had read his note, and heard his confession…but they still hadn’t had a real conversation on where exactly they stood. But things were certainly very smooth between them. They laughed. They shared stories. There were the little moments where they had begun to grow closer.

For the past handful of nights, only one of the two beds in their abode was in use, though not for the reason most would conclude. Paszek simply got up one night and chose to sleep next to her. And she happily accepted. But that’s all it was. Lying near one another. Being close. Was it exactly what either (or both?) of them wanted? Paszek wasn’t sure. He was happy with the arrangement, but was he fully content? Again, he didn’t really know the answer.

“ _Settle down, have a nice home in the country…_ ”

It was a mocking suggestion by Hendricks, but in truth, Paszek knew that’s what he really wanted. All he wanted was for her to be safe, and stay close. Or at least one of the two.

* * *

 

Television news never really got a break in these times. Most of the attention in the past weeks had gone to the Zurich incident, and rightfully so.

But the segment that flashed on the screen next gave Kane a bit of a shock.

“ _An anonymous account sent WCC this video clip. The contents of it are shocking._ ”

A lone figure sits in front of the camera. There’s nothing to distinguish…the room behind them is entirely blank, and a white mask covers their entire face. A modified voice starts to speak.

“ _Why does your governing body lie to you? They tell you so much…promise you so much…but they never deliver._ ”

“ _They tell you that there is no knowledge of who the Zurich terrorists are. This is not true._ ”

Kane called out to Paszek.

“ _They tell you that Jacob Hendricks was killed in action on November 5 th. This is also not true._”

Paszek rushed into the room. His eyes widened in shock.

“ _Commander Hendricks of the Winslow Accord commandeered the city’s robotic forces to wreak havoc._ ”

Kane and Paszek turned to each other.

“ _What’s that? You don’t believe me? Well, that’s quite alright. Maybe we should ask someone else._ ”

The camera panned over to show an older man who was bloodied, gagged, and bound. Kane almost recognized him…but from where?

“ _General Pfyffer? Is there any truth to what I’m saying?_ ”

The older man desperately nodded and simultaneously groaned in pain.

“ _In fact, you said yourself that he would face thousands of war crime charges? And that he should just be killed?_ ”

Another nod, and another moan of pain.

“ _Your information has been invaluable to the liberation of humanity. Consider your misdeeds forgiven._ ”

Abruptly, the video cut off, and the telecaster returned into the frame.

“ _The remainder of the video is far too graphic to be shown live. It appears that the man in the video is General Cedric Pfyffer of the Zurich Security Forces, although this remains unconfirmed. Both the ZSF and the WA have yet to comment on the video._ ”

“ _For now, we turn to our chief political corres…_ ”

Kane shut off the broadcast, but Paszek was the first to speak.

“I don’t…how…why?”

“He kidnapped him?” Kane responded.

“The general…he knew about Hendricks’ involvement…but how did this guy? And why would he want anyone else to?”

“He sounded philosophical to me…like he’s trying to prove a point.”

What point was that supposed to be? Sure, he had mentioned the “liberation of humanity”…but that was such a vague mantra that there was no way to pinpoint its exact meaning. Kane and Paszek bounced around ideas…religious fundamentalists...CDP propaganda…some combination of both…or neither?

All they knew was that the phone call from the WA was no surprise.

* * *

 

It was a bit refreshing, Kane thought, to be briefed by actual, live human being instead of a mission report document. Not that she missed talking to all the CIA suits that ran the whole operation.

And boy, there were a lot of suits in on this meeting.

About 20 individuals sat in the long conference room. At one end, Kane sat with Paszek directly to her left. At the other end of the oval table was a rather important man: Robert Teele, the director of the CIA. Of course, the director of the CIA was a very important man because of the controversy surrounding his appointment…the last director was found dead in a car fire a block from their Baltimore home.

So Robert Teele had something of a target on his back. If he was even a little bit scared of it, though, it certainly didn’t show.

The other people in the meeting? No one Kane could put a name to. Lots of suits, with a few generals mixed in. She figured they outranked her, in one facet or another.

Director Teele spoke up.

“Alright, everyone…I’d like to get us all caught up as quickly as possible.”

Everyone turned to face him.

“From what we know so far, the man in the video did indeed capture and kill Cedric Pfyffer of the ZSF. We don’t know where or when he was captured, and there was never a missing person’s report filed.”

He paused.

“We all know what hackers are capable of. I’m not surprised in the least that someone managed to access the ZSF’s database. But this man, and whatever organization he’s working for, clearly have a very dangerous motive.”

Another beat.

“And before you all ask: no, we _do not_ believe he is associated with the CDP. Despite their other political moves, they’ve been very consistent in their disassociation with Switzerland. News reports from Russia seem to be just as confused as ours.”

“We’ve prepared a statement. Everything still stands as is. Commander Hendricks never went to Zurich, and there is no information on the identity of the attacker. Right now, it’s our word against his.”

One man, clad in a green military jacket studded with medals, raised his voice to interject.

“He _kidnapped_ a high ranking general! Shouldn’t we be worried about what he’s going to do next?”

Director Teele clearly had a response to this already prepared.

“Of course we are. We’ve got our best people analyzing the video to determine anything and everything we can about this man, and who he’s associated with.”

He stopped for a short moment.

“But, as of right now, we’re focused on damage control. The American people, and all those in the WA, need to trust us now more than ever.”

That seemed to make the upstart general fall quiet.

“You’ll be receiving your files shortly. They should clear up anything else you’re concerned about.”

Teele then sat down in his chair. That was the cue for the rest of the leaders in the meeting to start ushering people out. As Paszek stood up to leave, Teele spoke up.

“I’ll need you and Officer Kane to remain here just a little longer.” His tone was equal parts serious and casual. Paszek slowly sat back down.

When the doors finally shut, Teele began the secondary meeting of sorts.

“After the whole DNI mess…we’ve put all of our Cyber-Soldiers on leave. And I intend to keep it that way.”

Paszek glared at him.

“But…I’d be lying if I said you weren’t one of our most valuable assets. There are lots of problems that I think you can solve for us.”

“What are you suggesting?”

“A partnership. Placing you in the hands of the CIA will allow us to send you wherever we need you most.”

“So…the most dangerous places?”

“…naturally, there are some hotspots that could use your help.”

Paszek was visibly not thrilled about the prospect of that.

“But we know that your skills are better suited for more…specialized purposes…”

Both Paszek and Kane looked as if they needed a bit more elaboration.

“The Armed Forces are more than capable of holding down borders. You’re one of the few remaining guys we have with experience in covert ops. There’s terrorist plots that need stopping…research results that need to be in our hands…people that need to be taken out.”

“I’m just a hitman for you?”

“Far from it, Captain.”

Paszek’s eyes widened.

“Yes, there is a promotion along with it.”

“I agree. On one condition.”

Teele motioned for him to stake his claim.

“Officer Kane acts as my handler.”

Teele squinted.

“Miss Kane, your services are needed by the Pentagon. Budget data analysis.”

Kane slowly shook her head.

“All or nothing, Director Teele.”

Teele softly sighed and placed on palm on his own bald head. It was clear that he would have to send them off together, or not at all.

With both of the two soldiers staring at him, he clicked his pen and jotted down the demand, effectively altering the terms of the deal. He slid the paperwork over to Paszek.

“Sign here.”

* * *

 

Paszek had heard Teele mention that his skills were “specialized.” He didn’t think much of it. The file he was handed the next day, however, seemed to add a whole new layer to the otherwise throwaway line.

The feds didn’t just need him to tackle their toughest missions…they needed him to use some of their newly developed weapons technology.

Why him?

Well, as it turned out, the WA hadn’t tested out their weapons in the field before; the practice was reserved for simulations. The so called “specialists” would enter virtual battlefields created with their DNIs and fight each other with the newest tech the WA had to offer. Apparently, Paszek, learned, the program was abruptly cancelled for…what exactly? He couldn’t tell. It was redacted.

Either way, the WA needed a fresh batch of test subjects, and Paszek had the good fortune to be chosen as one.

The weapon?

_Hand-held cryogenic pistol. Fires rounds of compacted and focused solid hydrogen that will freeze upon impact. Repeated hits on the same target will encase it in ice._

There was another entire paragraph describing the inner workings of device…something about high-grade polymer cohesion…not anything he could really understand.

DNI or not, there were always going to be things that flew right over his head. Those in charge in the Cybernetics division never saw it necessary for him to receive any substantial scientific knowledge. It wasn’t like they didn’t have the capacity to do so. They absolutely did. After hearing what that lunatic Krueger had to say…maybe it was that they didn’t want him to be _too_ smart. Just smart enough to get by, but not enough to start to rebel.

Paszek wished so badly that he could tell the others what he saw in the Frozen Forest…Krueger’s confession…did the government know that DNIs were just meant to be a mind control tool? Was that why they signed the contract? It was impossible to know, and to bring up the topic would spell the end of Paszek’s career in…well… _everything_.

As much as Paszek had enjoyed himself over the past few weeks with Kane, he did feel a certain urge to get back on the battlefield. This sort of gnawing feeling in his sternum that needed a release. Tension. Pressure.

And while he didn’t like that combat was the secret to cleansing it, he recognized that it was the reality.

* * *

 

Kane still wasn’t too happy about Director Teele’s initial ruling to place her back on desk duty. She had helped find and take out the CIA’s most wanted, and this was how they planned to use her skills? Granted, the decision was overturned…but only at Paszek’s request.

What was that supposed to mean?

The mission reports have been written. They know the things she’s had to do to get to this point. Why waste the field potential she had? Was it to silence her? If so, they why would they be so willing to change it on a dime? Either her compliance isn’t as important as she once thought…or Paszek’s is _far_ more so.

She was worried about him. Well that was a given. She had always been worried about him. But she had spent just about every moment of these last few weeks with Paszek…and certain _feelings_ were starting to come through.

Of course, she still felt a certain sense of lament in their still quite distinctive gap in the intensity of their attractions...Paszek always seemed to look at her with this subtle gaze of admiration…as if he constantly needed to remind himself of her beauty. Kane found the gesture to be nothing short of heartwarming…but knew that she could not return the gaze with the same fire…the same resonance.

Kane was in love with him. That was a reality she could no longer deny. But Paszek’s affections for her seemed to grow down to the deepest…the most ethereal levels of human emotions. Not to say that hers were purely superficial…quite the opposite. She was certainly passionate about him, yet it still seemed to rank second to Paszek’s. This difference didn’t appear to bother Paszek in the slightest, although Kane wondered what exactly it would mean for their future together, or rather their future after the war was over. Whatever war they were being sent to next.

* * *

 

Paszek was clueless as to why Kane had the most obvious and smug grin on her face when she entered the common room and sat across from him at the table.

“What are you so happy about?”

“You’re not happy that we get to travel together some more?”

“Oh, no!” Paszek defended himself. “I certainly am. Just looks like you’re a different kind of happy.”

“You received the same file as me, correct?”

“Pretty sure.”

“Then you saw the portion where it talked about the new weaponry you’re being assigned?”

“Yeah…that ice prototype…what about it?”

“Well, I did some digging….and found that the guys who _used_ to use the prototypes…”

“The specialists?”

Kane nodded. “They all had codenames.”

“And what’s your point?”

“I’ve thought of the perfect one for you.”

“Please don’t t….”

“Igloo”

Paszek could only glare at Kane while she struggled not to break into laughter.

 “That’s…that’s actually pretty good!” Paszek let out a well-needed laugh.

“Just imagine it! ‘Callsign Igloo: your mission is to freeze their assets. Permanently.’”

Kane was practically howling at this point. It was clear that this was a laugh she had been waiting to get out for some time now. Paszek couldn’t help but chuckle a bit, at the joke itself, yes, but more so at Kane’s reaction. It was nice to know that their brief moments of levity would not be taken away by their return to work.

Wait.

Something was echoing in the background. No, wait again. Something was on a loop.

“ _Freeze._ ”

The word seemed to linger in the air.

“ _Freeze._ ”

It repeated itself over and over. It grew louder, eventually overtaking Kane’s laughter. The voice was strange…somehow both intimidating and soothing at once.

“ _Freeze._ ”

“ _Frozen_.”

“ _Frozen._ ”

“ _Imagine yourself in a frozen forest._ ”

“ _You can feel the snowflakes on your skin._ ”

Suddenly, his vision started to…change somehow. Everything was just as clear as before…but his whole field of view turned this…snowy white. The outlines were still there….he could see Kane’s silhouette, and that of the chairs on the other side of the room…but the details had dissolved into this blank slate.

“ _Trapped._ ”

“ _Confined._ ”

“ _There is no escape._ ”

“ _Think what you’ve left behind._ ”

Whatever remained of the room was now gone from Paszek’s perspective. The silhouettes were no more. His vision was entirely white, with the exception of a lone figure sitting in front of him. It appeared to be a woman…but her image was still unclear...Paszek couldn’t make out who it was.

A voice spoke again. This time, though, it sat much more on the calm spectrum, but tinges of the old voice still remained subtly present.

“ _Death does not always extinguish._ ”

“ _I need a way out._ ”

A beat.

“ _We need a way out_.”

“ _Imagine a safe place._ ”

With no warning, everything around Paszek suddenly began to revert back to its original state. Whiteness drained from the walls…shapes began to take their regular form…and the woman in front of him slowly disappeared…leaving Kane, still finishing up the last few seconds of enjoyment from the joke that she seemed to find a lot funnier than anyone else.

Paszek simply stared straight forward and shook his head back and forth a few times. What had just happened? The voices…the mantras…that piercing white hue…these were supposed to be gone. Corvus…he had left his head…right? But it didn’t seem that Corvus was pulling the strings….there were two voices. Were they competing? Cooperating? Paszek hadn’t the slightest idea. But something was wrong.

Kane noticed Paszek’s deathly expression.

“Hey…are you good?”

She squinted in confusion.

“You alright? Looks like you saw a ghost.”

Paszek quickly blinked a few times and faked a smile, desperately trying to hide his terrible inner panic.

“Oh, yeah, yeah! I’m fine! Just, uh…was thinking about something else, is all…”

Kane’s tone turned much more serious.

“Really, are you okay?”

“Yes.”

“You sure? I’m just making sure.”

Paszek locked on.

“I’m fine.”

Paszek was not going to let this become a problem. And if it wasn’t a problem, then Kane was better off not knowing about it.

* * *

 

_Mission Briefing for January 3 rd, 2071: Chief Intelligence Officer Catlin Hernandez_

_Two months ago, the focus of our operation in Cairo was to capture John Taylor. The attempted coup of the NRC in the city was unsuccessful. The NRC are now back in control, albeit with a depleted electronic supply. John Taylor, in his attempts to escape the city, commandeered most of the defense-capable robots in the downtown area, and upon his death, they were destroyed._

_This leaves us a great opportunity for a second uprising. With no reinforcements, there is little doubt that WA forces, in combination with Egyptian Army resources, could retake the city, and by extension, the entire region. However, the capturing of EA officers, including Lieutenant Zeyad Khalil, has left the EA disorganized and unwilling to attack._

_Despite the extraction we made there just over 5 years ago, the NRC continues to use their Ethiopian base as their primary POW center. The mission is to extract Khalil and the 4 other VIPs listed in the detailed report._

_Captain Ignacio Paszek will lead the operation, with a platoon of 6 more men under his orders. All communications are to be directed to LNO Rachel Kane._


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While infiltrating an NRC prison, Paszek comes face to face with a mysterious figure.

Paszek fucking hated this place.

There wasn’t a more polite way to state it. That was just how he felt about this godforsaken Ethiopian prison. The place would forever be tainted in painful memories…and even more painful realities.

Despite this, though, the plane ride over there had him feeling considerably less anxious than the ones preceding it. Maybe it was just the leave of absence he had taken…but it seemed that this operation was not nearly as urgent as the last few he had undertaken. This was just a simple search and rescue mission. Sure, it had its consequences, but on the whole it remained relatively unimportant on the international scale. In fact, Paszek thought that this mission, from just about every conceivable angle, was identical to their objective just over a half decade ago.

Rescue the VIPs, try to stay, quiet, and don’t do anything to compromise.

Of course, they had broken the latter two rules, by both engaging in some (rather brutal) firefights with the NRC, and by lobbying Taylor to save the remaining prisoners.

Hendricks was the only officer there without a DNI at the time…and the only one to even consider saving those doomed men. Paszek hardly said a word during the entire mission, but he remembered wanting to do the same…wanting to help those men out of there. It confounded him as to why Taylor and the rest of the team had been so cruel…but the ways things ended seemed to remind him.

He still had the nightmares. The chopper flying out into the distance. The damp soil on his face. The flashing red lights. The cold steel appendages on his arms. And again on his legs. The absolute searing pain. His screams were animalistic…a reaction to a fate worse than any other.

He remembered how hopeless he was. How he sat there, staring at the sky and feeling the rain on his eyes, if only because he dared not look at the bloodied mess that used to be his limbs. He wanted nothing more than for than damn grunt to stomp on his head. To end it all. End the suffering. He cursed those men they had saved. Why did they have to rescue them? There were safe, and he was the prisoner now. It was selfish, but they were the thoughts of the man about to die without purpose.

 “ _You told us it was a bad idea, and we did it anyways. Are you happy now? Are you going to say you told me so?_ ”

That was what he had wanted so badly to ask the man who stood in front of him after that robot fell to bits on the ground. Maybe he’d see the stubborn bastard laugh just one time before he died.

He remembered that voice telling him that it would all be okay. He told him he would be okay. Fine. Alright. He’d live. He would make it. The cries of pain continued. Loud. Thrashing. No, no, he continued. You’re going to be okay. You’re going to be okay. Everything will be okay.

Taylor may have saved his life…but he didn’t make it okay. There was most certainly a difference.

Was a DNI really the only chance Paszek had at surviving? There weren’t any surgeries that _didn’t_ involve rewiring his brain? They weren’t any prosthetics that _didn’t_ come equipped with hacking systems and grenades?

Initially, Paszek was grateful for such “upgrades”…they made him faster, stronger. He was also given the impression that a DNI would make him smarter. That simulation they put him in during the surgery was…dare he say it…fun? Jumping 15 feet in the air, running across walls, taking down drones with a wave of his hand…it made him feel like a new person. Like more than a person. Like one of those superheroes he read about as a kid.

But not even 15 minutes later he was already seeing the side effects. It didn’t matter how many times Diaz told him otherwise…those grunts were alive. Alive and hostile. They surrounded him…piled on him…trapped him.

“ _Hey, man! Snap out of it!_ ”

Diaz seemed much more understanding in that moment than he normally was. For once, Paszek could tell that he felt some level of empathy. He must’ve known what it was like. Paszek could only wonder what bogeymen Diaz had seen. And what about Maretti? Taylor? Hall? What were their nightmares like? Paszek knew they saw something. Hall had her Bastogne. Did everyone else have one, too?

And those voices…those voices he had heard the day before…what the hell were those? He played the scene over and over again in his head. He swore that they were familiar…he had heard them before. But what was the point? Is his mind just playing more tricks on him? They had hallucinations before DNIs, right? Maybe it was that.

Did these voices expect Paszek to know what to do with the information they gave him? Everything was vague and…oddly fragmented. He just wanted answers. All the voices did was raise questions. Maybe that’s what they wanted. To drive him crazy. To push him over the edge. To make sure he’d never be the person he wanted to be.

No. Nope. His mind was drifting too far. There was a mission. A mission to do.  That was important. Mission. Mission. Objectives. Mission.

Rescue VIPs. Don’t compromise mission. Stay as quiet as possible. Don’t compromise mission.

Don’t compromise.

Don’t.

* * *

 

Kane, too, was having a moment of disdainful nostalgia…though not quite for the same reason. Since the prison was too far behind enemy lines, she was delegated to the closest CIA black site, which just so happened to be Al-Arish, where they had operated during their time in Egypt.

Just about every one of these covert buildings was designed on the same model, obviously with a few exceptions for the environment. But Al-Arish’s layout remained very similar to all other bases…including the former Singapore location.

It was still an experience that she couldn’t quite process. She had a surprising amount of foresight on the situation; she knew the 54i were coming…and about how long it would take. There just wasn’t enough time to do anything. She knew that Paszek and Hendricks were simply too far away and in front of too many hostiles to make it there on time.

She told them not to come for her.

And when the militant group rolled in and started shooting, she expected nothing less than death. She remembered hearing gunfire one floor down, then in the hallway over, then in the next room, and then right outside her door. She remembered the explosion that rocked the upper levels-the glass that rained down from above and shot itself out into the night sky. She remembered the black-haired vixen busting down the already worn door and grabbing her by the neck.

But what Kane remembered most was the way Paszek looked when he rushed into the room.

The absolute fury and rage and distress that she saw on his face was something she would both never forget and pray she’d never see again. This was a man unhinged. A man with everything to lose. A man with no filters and no restrictions.

She swore she could almost hear the gritting of his teeth as he tackled Goh Xiulan and pinned her to the floor. She could almost see the bloodlust in his eyes as he forced her head into the scorching fire. She knew that he held the warlord’s head within the flames for much longer than was necessary…but he seemed to take an odd pleasure out of it. Revenge? Finality? She never could exactly figure out why.

Kane speculated that perhaps that was the moment in which Paszek truly lost himself. He hadn’t even contracted the virus at that point…Corvus wasn’t doing the deed. But maybe Paszek had stepped out of the shallows far before he found a vengeful AI in his brain.

It was all Paszek. The anger. The violence. Though she couldn’t discount that conversation that had but two days later. Yes, there was Paszek, the killing machine, the unbridled beast…but there was also Paszek the soft-spoken partner, the hopeless romantic…

She just hoped that their return to battle would not unleash the former for any longer than he needed to be in control. But she wasn’t going to get too optimistic. There was still something…off about him. Paszek had something lingering somewhere in his head…Kane just couldn’t put her finger on it. Sure, it could just be something harmless, or even trivial. His history, though, didn’t seem to support that. Despite how much Paszek had opened up to her, Kane still knew that his shell was tough. It took a lot to reach his core…to really unnerve him.

If there was one thing Kane was sure about Paszek, though, it was that he comes back.

He always comes back.

* * *

 

Fear in numbers was the name of the game for the NRC, and it seemed to work for them. In a world governed by free speech and tolerance, there are always going to be those who are afraid. The scared joined the NRC hoping that it would unite everybody. And all it took was guns, machetes, and a bit of chemical persuasion to flip the tables. Now the people of Africa were scared, and NRC was to be feared.

From a purely historical perspective, the fact that the NRC ditched the long-tenured practice of child soldiers was rather interesting. It seemed that their leaders had very…optimistic views regarding the solidity of their ideology. Rather than recruit boys at a young age and indoctrinate them…the NRC knew that the threat of _not_ joining would be motivation enough, and that wasn’t dependent of anything, age being the least of worries.

Despite the barbarity of the coalition, they did recognize that, on their own, they stood no chance of sustaining themselves. The WA was already starting campaigns against them, both on the ground and through word of mouth, so it was only a matter of time before they found themselves tucked under the wing of the CDP. However, it would be a mistake to signify the CDP’s acquisition of the NRC as an acceptance of their policies; just like in the 20th century cold war, the CDP simply took the side against their rivals in order to make a political statement. But the bottom line remained the same for CDP; they wanted to control as much territory as possible. No human rights violations were going to change that.

Insertion into the NRC prison was easier than anticipated. As is turned out, they were so technologically underwhelmed that they hadn’t the ability to rebuild the DEAD systems that the WA had destroyed 5 years ago. It was almost laughable to think that a militant group that controlled over half of a continent didn’t have the resources to repair technology that dated back to the 2040s…but then again, computers weren’t exactly their strong suit. The damage that had been done to the actual prison block on the facility was minor, and as such the building remained entirely intact, exactly where it stood before.

The CIA insisted on again using enemy uniforms in order to avoid detection. Of course, official records would state otherwise, as disguising oneself with another uniform is technically a violation of WA protocol, albeit a poorly enforced one. Paszek certainly understood their purpose, but he felt that going undercover gave too much of an impression of leeway; it left many with the mindset that they were simply incapable of having their cover blown. Hiding in the shadows, however risky it may be, was always more comfortable for Paszek. Instead of worrying what people _should_ or _shouldn’t_ see, it becomes about what they _can_ and _can’t_ see. It takes the speculation out of the equation.

Paszek and the small squadron assigned to him where able to enter the compound on one of its side entrances; the gatekeeper opened up, no questions asked when he saw the blue camouflaged vests, though the fact that all but one of the five were Caucasian may have been somewhat suspicious. In any case, it was preferable to their original plan of letting Paszek test out his new weapon on the poor soul that guarded the entryway.

The group strolled past the air runways, each clutching their KN-44s and remaining entirely silent; there was no way speaking English would go unnoticed with most of the NRC speaking Oromo or Swahili.

Large cargo planes both took off and landed, while jeeps drove by in both directions. It all seemed to have purpose-perhaps transporting ammo, rations, prisoners, or whatever else. Of course, Paszek had no real way of knowing whether any of that was true; the constant flow of resources could just be entirely random-moving just for the sake of moving. Foot soldier, too, seemed to be moving around as well nearly constantly, although this was probably in order to create some kind of patrol. The presence of the WA squad in the facility appeared to shine their system in a negative light.

Paszek noted a few changes in the layout; namely, a newer, much longer (and presumably, much sturdier) bridge linked the prison area to the rest of the compound. Most likely, it was to keep any escapees from reaching anything that could aid them in getting out. This did not bode well for their plan today…last time, the still managed to extract the prisoners after blowing their cover, but this time, there was no room for error.

Of course, Paszek wasn’t too concerned about that. He repeated that mission briefing over and over in his head. Don’t compromise. Don’t compromise. Don’t compromise.

It wasn’t long before they had crossed over the bridge and reached the door to the prison. Paszek didn’t hesitate; he removed a keycard that opened the electronic locks, courtesy of Kane. An equal lack of apprehension came from the two soldiers standing on the other side; if you could get in, you were supposed to be there, it seemed.

The group walked through the first hallway, which seemed to consist entirely of administrative offices, probably for security or intelligence; it would only make sense, considering that captured POWs were their primary source of info leaks. The men on the other side of the half-tinted glad windows paid no mind to them.

Paszek holstered his rifle, and the rest of the squad followed suit. They started to pass by a few interrogation rooms. A few were occupied, but Paszek couldn’t see who was in there or what was going on…it was probably best that he didn’t know. It would only distract him.

They neared the main control room, identical to how it looked on the previous mission. Two of the men, Reynolds and Coleman, casually walked over and stood against the wall halfway between the room and the door they entered from the hallway. Needed some cover fire if things got hot.

The remaining three entered the control room. There’s an NRC soldier monitoring the screens. That’s not good. They needed him out of there.

The group’s regional contact, Mwangi’s his name, walked up to the man and started speaking to him in Oromo. Something about a change in guard. They needed to swap duties; he needed to head out to the south side of the facility to watch over a different sector of the prison.

The NRC guy didn’t seem to buy it. He bites back, and a bit louder. Paszek can just barely make out what he’s saying.

“ _That can’t be right. Command hasn’t said shit about post changes. Let me speak to the Sergeant…_ ”

He started to walk out, and Mwangi steps in front of him to hold him back. Mwangi kept his cool, tried to talk about how the papers were on their way…he just needed to get to his new post.

Nope. That didn’t work. NRC guy gets even louder. Mwangi kept trying his best, but it’s clear that nothing is working. Paszek can see the sweat dribbling down his forehead.

That was it. Their cover was about to be blown.

Paszek tapped his right hand to his right temple three times.

The last WA, Brent, reached into the bag he carried over his shoulder. He saw the signal. He took out a small circular device, not dissimilar from an old landmine, and placed it on the ground.

Brent snapped his fingers once.

Paszek did the same, only twice.

Brent replied by repeating the action, but adding on a third.

And in cadence with the snaps, a faint booming sound is emitted. All the screens in the room shut down to black, and the ceiling lights dimmed down to almost nothing.

Before the NRC soldier can react, he is shoved towards the center of the room by Mwangi, who quickly dives for the door.

In a single swift motion, Paszek reached for his holster, took out the newly minted cyro-pistol, and fired one round at the stumbling hostile.

There was no sound. No scream. No echo. Just the sight of the NRC guy falling to the ground; there was only an unsatisfying plop as his forehead connected with the concrete.

Paszek had his priorities straight. He ran to the door, checking to see if anyone else had noticed. Coleman and Reynolds were standing exactly where they had been just a minute or so earlier. They hadn’t even looked in Paszek’s direction.

Paszek helped Mwangi get up off the floor, and then knelt beside the corpse of the NRC solider. He needed to see exactly what kind of damage the weapon could really do.

It was certainly something to see.

His face was something of an enigma-a bleary red in some places but a ghoulish blue in others. All of the extremities: fingers, ears, eyes…they were all encased in tiny ice crystals. Every inch of skin that was exposed was coated with a damp and cold mist. Upon turning the body over, Paszek could see that the parts of his body that impacted with the ground had begun to shatter; a small piece of his forehead, dyed a eerie violet, fell out of place, while both of his wrists had noticeable cracks in them. Had he not known any better, Paszek would have assumed the man had been buried in an avalanche.

Paszek wasn’t sure how to feel about it. Part of him was unnerved…something about killing a man with ice made him feel like he was dealing an unjust amount of pain…the relative quickness of the death couldn’t shake him from the idea that there was an incalculable deal of suffering on this man.

Yet there was another part of him that took an immense amount of joy in his handiwork…pleasure? No…more like pride. Yes, a pride in what he had done. Something felt…right about killing a man with ice instead of lead. To make others feel the cold just as he had. To make others understand. He savored the grating irony.

No. No. No. That was not right. That was not what he was thinking. It couldn’t be. Right? There was no way Paszek had actually thought those things. He was in a mission. Missions are not for thinking. They are for doing.

He holstered his pistol and stood back up from the body. While Brent picked up the device form the ground, Mwangi continued to stare at the fallen soldier, shaking his head.

Paszek was not paying the closest of attention to the younger African man, but he noticed an absolutely indistinguishable look of on his face-as if something had shaken him to the deepest part of his core. This was a man who had seen the NRC’s machete work up close and personal. Who had seen the fall of the Eastern African Coast for everything it was: degrading and violent and savage. But this…this frozen dead man on the floor was either a total mystery or something he understood all too well. Paszek had no clue which on it was. He only had a single thought to express.

“ _They say, when a dead man turns blue, it is because he has no heart.”_

The distress in his voice was sharply distinct, even under the thick accent. He seemed to simultaneously nod and shake his head just after uttering the phrase - a strange conglomeration of disappointment and recognition.    

He turned his head to look at Paszek, to see what his reaction would be, but there was none to behold. Paszek had that same stoic look plastered on his face. He simply picked up the body and walked over to the other end of the room, away from the door, and set it down in the corner. Anybody that would have happened to be watching likely would have thought that Paszek didn’t seem to care about the ordeal at all.

After a few brief moments, Paszek heard a familiar ringing sound in his head.

“I saw the blip from the equalizer. Everything alright?” Kane’s voice was a welcome one to hear again, equal parts collected, warm, and invested.

Paszek didn’t need to speak out loud. That’s what the DNI was for.

“ _All good. Had to take out a hostile. No alarms tripped. The weapon does its job just fine; I’ll give a more detailed analysis later. Good work on that equalizer, too-that thing really saved our skins._ ”

“Glad to see everything’s working out. Call if you need anything.”

It was an entirely mundane exchange between the two. Paszek couldn’t really tell if it was just them being caught up in the mission, or them just trying to ignore their fears. Either way, Paszek was just happy to know she was there. Living with a guardian angel, whether in your ear or by your side, was something he could always appreciate.

No. No. Happy was not what he needed to be. He needed to be focused. Focused. Don’t compromise. He almost did already. Don’t do it again. Don’t.

The computer screens started to boot up, and the lights returned to their normal brightness. The device responsible for the crashing of the electronics was known as the equalizer. A product of Kane’s design, it was meant to knock out power to remote areas for a short period of time before returning everything to normal. The timer on this particular one was set at a 17 seconds, a seemingly random number; but it had its significance. 17 seconds could give the squad enough time to take out a handful of hostiles, but was just under the standard camera recalibration period of 18.6 seconds, so the outage would not be considered unusual by anyone monitoring them. Though it was very useful in some very particular situations, it couldn’t feasibly be activated in a CDP controlled building, for example; their cameras were far more advanced, having little to no calibration time. Thankfully, the NRC’s technical ineptitude made this mission a prime example of the effectiveness of the device.

Paszek waved his arm at Brent to tell him to stand outside the door, and he obliged, lightly jogging past them with the bag in tow. Paszek stepped up to the large computer console and hovered his arm just over the holographic keyboard, activating the DNI interface.

A rush of information. Prisoner numbers. Cell combinations. Guard postings. Intelligence reports in four different languages. He scrolled past them all. That’s not what he needed. Interrogation guidelines? Closer. Camera operating systems? Warm. Live Surveillance Feed. Bingo.

Paszek quickly cycled through the different rooms…he didn’t have time to see what was going on in the rest of the prison, or to stop it. They were there for a very short list of people-four, to be exact. Paszek had their names and faces memorized, but with the exception of Khalil, knew absolutely nothing about them.

More scrolling…more scrolling…more scrolling…something was not right. None of the VIPs were there…he swore he had gone through all of the cells and interrogation rooms…no Khalil...none of the other three…just the usual…

No. Wait. Maybe not everything was usual. He went back to one of the cells. Cell B4. It was a larger one, meant to hold…4 inmates. It looked empty. A closer glance. There were definitely some people inside. One guard standing near the back. Just barely visible in the low lighting. But he looked different. He had a mask on. Something was unusual.

Wait again. That wasn’t not all. Mystery guard wasn’t alone. On the floor, just behind his left foot. What is that? Oh. No. That wasn’t good.

A hand sprawled out, palm down on the ground.

“ _This is urgent. I need Sector B of the prison cleared. There’s a guard in there with some prisoners. At least one casualty - possibly a VIP. Anything you can do?”_

Kane was a bit startled by Paszek’s calling, specifically because it happened so shortly after his last.

“Yeah, yeah sure…just let me see…Yes, that’s good. Okay, I can report an incident in a different sector to draw attention…Code 49 in Sector E. No guarantees, but it’s the only way I can do it without triggering any massive alarms. Sound good?”

“ _Affirmative. Sending squad to Sector B to investigate._ ”

“Stay saf-“

Paszek cut off communications before Kane could finish.

She hoped he needed that extra half second.

* * *

 

Paszek and the four men under his command reached the cell with no issue, and there were no klaxons, proverbial or not, sounding in the facility. The hallway that held the cells of Sector B remained entirely devoid of NRC personnel.

Cell B4, as its designation would apply, was located rather early in the sector, Paszek knew from searching the cameras that there were a total of 80 cells in the sector, so the fact that the one they needed to infiltrate was close to the exit was nothing more than a stroke of luck.

The area itself was rather unremarkable; dull blue cell doors ran parallel on both sides of the hallway, and a single long-ways fluorescent illuminated the entire room. Each door had a small keypad next to it, with glowing number buttons, an intercom for communications, and a slot for a card.

Paszek quickly reorganized his party of four into a more tactical arrangement. Reynolds and Brent stood on the right side of the doorway, the latter with a gas grenade primed. Coleman manned the left end, while Mwangi stood with his back to the opposite cell door, prepared to assist if any of the VIPs made it out, or if the assailant was able to slip past the others. Lastly, Paszek himself hovered just to the left of Coleman, with both the encrypted keycard and his cyro weapon in hand.

No words needed to be said. They all knew the drill. Paszek looked around and made eye contact with each one before beginning his snap cadence.

One snap. They all nodded their heads. Brent replied with a second.

Paszek lifts his index and middle finger to make the final affirmation…

“ _Don’t even think about it._ ”

He paused. Brent gave him a confused glance.

“ _I have hostages in here. I know it’s your mission to save them._ ”

There was someone directly communicating to him. The voice was muddied….altered with some sort of artificial modulator…there was no way to tell who it was.

“ _Tell your men to put down their weapons. Come inside alone. Then we can talk._ ”

Paszek reluctantly raised his arm and slowly lowered it, indicating that he wanted the soldiers to place their guns on the floor. He could clearly see both Brent and Reynolds across from him raise their eyebrows in suspicion. But a stern look from Paszek coupled with a repeat of the arm gesture seemed to convince them to do it. Shortly after, Coleman followed suit.

Mwangi, however, refused to waver, still aiming his MR6 pistol directly at the doorway. When prompted by Paszek once more to comply, Mwangi only stood by and shook his head. Paszek walked over to the young soldier and said but two words to him.

“Stay quiet.”

The three WA men backed away from the cell door as Paszek returned back to his original position. He removed the keycard from his pocket and swiped it across the reader, causing a confirming beep and a faint green light to emit from the panel.

As one would expect, the door quickly shut behind him after entering.

The cell was actually quite large-about twice the size of a standard janitorial closet, but something about it still made it seem cramped. Perhaps it was the grey cracked walls or the intentionally poorly-lit bare center. Of course, none of that was really relevant to what was going on in the back of the room, just in front of a set of two small bunk-beds.

The figure was not physically imposing, at least not to Paszek. He appeared to have a rather average weight and build. His indistinct look, however, applied to more than his size. He wore a black wool mask around his face, obscuring any and all facial features. His NRC uniform was altered to have long sleeves, and his socks were pulled all the way up, leaving not a single inch of skin exposed.

He was the first to speak.

“I have to say, it is rather refreshing to talk to someone face to face. I always despised using your communications systems. They’re so…unreliable…” The voice modulator was still on, leaving his voice sounding entirely synthesized. There was also a sort of calmness present in his speech, as if he had rehearsed it twenty times over.

“The POWs. Hand them over.” Paszek said, characteristically unwavering.

“Yes, yes, I know that’s why you’re here.” He reeled back a bit. “But there’s a bit more to discuss than that.”

“No, there isn’t” Paszek’s tone remained the same. “Give me the hostages, or I will use deadly force.”

“I figured you’d stick to the script. That’s what you always do. Consider this…”

The man held up his right hand to his temple.

“Within ten seconds, I can have 30 guards in this sector. Maybe a few grunts, too.”

Paszek silently sighed, and his face slightly dropped. He can’t have that happen. The figure removed his hand from his head.

“Good? On the same page?” He paused, like we actually wanted a verbal response.

“I’m certain you saw my little news broadcast…people thought it was a pretty big deal. As it turns out, people don’t like it when their governments keep secrets from them.”

He paused.

“But you would know about that, wouldn’t you? They never told you what that DNI would do to you. It was a secret. A lie of omission. And look what it’s cost you!” He gestured towards Paszek.

“Why? Why would you want to leak the details of the attack? There’s no way the NRC could benefit from it.”

The man let out a hearty laugh. “Oh! The NRC! That’s priceless! My loyalties don’t lie with these obsolete…factions.”

“Then who do they lie with?”

The figure nodded his head. “Now you’re asking the right questions.”

“You’ve been in the game a while. You’ve seen your fair share of political moves and coups and recoups and re-recoups. All people seem to want is to control the castle or the high office.  Aren’t you frustrated? Don’t you see the pointlessness of it all?”

Paszek didn’t respond.

 “Really? What is it that drives you? Patriotism? Morality? Love? All fleeting sentiments. The only solution is no solution at all. No rule. No law. No boundaries.”

“Anarchy?”

“I prefer ‘primal instinct’.”

“Then what are you doing here? What do you need me for?”

“Have you learned nothing from your experiences? Are you truly so ignorant of your own power? Your…brief compliance would all but guarantee the liberation of the human species.”

“I don’t…understand…”

“You will. In due time, my friend.”

The figure cocked his head to the side, as if he had just realized something.

“It certainly is strange to see you alive, Paszek...what are you now? Captain, is it? God, that’s weird. Even weirder is seeing you alive, and your leading lady not.”

Paszek’s eyes quickly narrowed. He reached for his cyro-pistol and swiftly aimed it at the figure.

“Where is she?! What the hell did you do to her?!” Screw the mission. That was the line-the _one_ line that no one could cross, WA protocol be damned.

Underneath the mask, the figure’s eyebrows could be seen visibly arched.

“I swear to God, I’ll tear your fucking skull off if you don’t tell me right now!” Inhibition was an afterthought. He was running of off fury, and nothing else.

“I’m not sure what you’re accusing me of…I didn’t have anything to do with that…that was all you…”

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Your companion, Paszek. I didn’t kill her. You did.”

“What? Stop…stop spewing bullshit!”

The man sighed. “This isn’t going anywhere, clearly….just allow me to…”

“Fuck you! You still haven’t told me where she is!”

The man simply shook his head and placed his hand back on his temple.

“Need I remind you?”

Paszek could only grit his teeth and clench his fists. If he tripped an alarm, he and the others would surely be dead.

The man turned around, so that his back was now facing Paszek.

“As promised, I shall hand over what you came here for.”

Paszek gave a confused look, but continued to aim.

“Here, I have Commander Grieg, Minister Ahmed, and Mr. Reis. I hope you don’t mind, they appear to be a bit…mishandled.”

In a single thrust, three dead bodies were tossed across the room, landing near Paszek’s feet.

“You…”

The man finished Paszek’s thought for him. “…only saw what the NRC were doing to completion. Nothing more.”

A beat.

“Just remember. I’ve been your savior once before. I can do it again. You just have to let me.”

Paszek only hesitated for the slightest moment before firing his weapon.

As the smoke cleared, it became known to Paszek that he had hit nothing but the cement wall that laid behind the mysterious figure. The man himself? Gone. Without a trace. Paszek looked back-the cell door hadn’t even been opened.

What the hell was going on?

A sound croaked out from the corner.

“Paszek…you there?”

It was a familiar voice.

“Khalil?”

“Help me up, man…I can’t move my legs…can’t feel my legs…”

Paszek scampered over to the corner to find the upper half of Khalil protruding out from underneath the bed. He quickly grabbed hold of the Egyptian man’s shoulders and dragged him out, now revealing his entire body.

No wonder he couldn’t feel his legs.

There were nasty bullet wounds, placed precisely in each kneecap. It was blatantly intentional. Someone wanted him to never walk again.

“Is it bad?” Khalil sounded like he was struggling to keep his composure. He was one  tough guy.

“No. It’s okay. You’re gonna be just okay.” Paszek cursed himself as he said it. It was a lie. Maybe it could be a good one.

* * *

 

“ _Kane? Kane? Rachel? Is everything okay? Where are you? Is everything okay? Rachel? Everything alright? Are you safe? Rachel?_ ” Kane jumped a bit in her chair as Paszek’s voice burrowed over the comms.

“Hey, hey, calm down! I’m still in Al-Arish, haven’t moved. What’s going on over there?”

Kane heard Paszek breath a deep sigh.

“ _Oh God…look…it’s a…long story…just…oh my God…_ ” He was out of breath. Exhausted? Pained? Relieved? Hallucinatory? Kane hadn’t the slightest idea what was going on with him, and it worried her.

“Paszek! Tell me what’s happening!” She knew very well what was in her voice: desperateness, confusion, and panic.

“ _I…I…thought…just wait until I get back…I’ll explain…just…stay safe…_ ” Thought what?! Thought what?! What did he think?! Kane was cripplingly frustrated, but tried to reign in her tone a little bit, if only to calm him down.

“You don’t sound well-are you alright?”

“ _I’ll be back…don’t go…just…wait…oh God…_ ” No. No. Something is not right.

“Don’t you dare shut off your comms.”

“ _It’s too much…Rachel…just stay safe…I’ll be back…don’t go…I’ll expl_ …”

Static.

* * *

 

Goddamnit.

Shortly after having her frantic exchange with Paszek, Kane was able to call in to their extraction jet, and spoke with Reynolds, who cleared up a few details. Three of the VIPs were killed, and Khalil was wounded - Coleman (a medic) labeled his condition as stable. Paszek’s mental state, however, remained unclear.

“How is the Captain?”

“I couldn’t tell you if you I wanted to, ma’am.”

He paused.

“He’s just sitting there, staring at wall. He hasn’t said anything; no one’s said anything to him. Kept his hand on his gun the whole time.”

Another break.

“He usually like this?”

Kane closed his eyes and rubbed them with her hand.

“…don’t worry about him….thanks…”

She disconnected.

Kane was going to have a lengthy talk with Ignacio.

Clearly something was wrong - either he or the mission or both had been compromised, but he wasn’t willing to admit anything. Hell, he could barley form a coherent sentence. He never even confirmed how he was doing-just kept backing off - saying he would “be back”. She had a strange suspicion that the mantra didn’t mean exactly what it was supposed to. Kane wanted Paszek to “be back”- as in, here in Al-Arish-right then in that moment - safe and sound. But she wasn’t going to get that.

He called to frantically ask where she was? But why? Kane hadn’t said anything that would indicate she was leaving, and there wasn’t a single incident reported within 10 miles of the WA black site. Not that he would have known if something did happen. Was it some kind of misplaced instinct? Sudden fear of separation? With, Paszek, she could never really tell.

From Reynolds’ description, Kane could tell that Paszek was not in a good place; he was in his own little shell, speculating everything and resolving nothing. It was exactly the kind of rut he had proved himself incapable of digging out of; the kind of situation that Kane often found herself trying to fix. But Paszek still kept his direct communications off. There was no way to reach him, for now, at least.

She was his handler, right? She was supposed to make sure he was on the right path. Doing the right things. Thinking the right things. But she couldn’t help but feel that her… _other_ attachments to Paszek made that job impossible to do correctly. Kane wasn’t too convinced that the deal they made with the CIA was worth their while, but a good handler would never even question it. Kane knew that Paszek should stop doing these missions if either of them wanted a future…but she couldn’t say that when his physical presence alone was vital to roughly a third of the WA’s successful operations.

Didn’t the job also entail that she looks out for his “overall well-being”? How was she supposed to hold up both ends of this? It would be in Paszek’s best interest to pull him out of combat all together…maybe get him to some medical professionals...see what they can do about making him better.

And if it was in his best interest, it was also in hers, right?


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The pair grows closer to discovering the identity of the masked man, but Paszek must return to a place he never wanted to.

_Mission Report for January 3 rd, 2071: Captain Ignacio Paszek_

_Our entry into the prison went exactly as planned; we were able to remain incognito for the entirety of the mission. Upon reaching the main console room, we were forced to dispatch a single NRC soldier, but it did not create any significant disturbance. Security footage revealed a lone figure with a dead body in one of the cells, so I led the team to investigate it._

_After the figure threatened to execute hostages he was keeping, I was forced to try and negotiate with him. This was unsuccessful, and he revealed three of the VIPs to already be deceased-Reis, Grieg, and Ahmed. I attempted to subdue him, but he managed to escape. Lieutenant Khalil was left critically wounded, but we were able to extract him without any major complications._

_While I cannot confirm anything, I should note that the figure looked and sounded identical to the man in the Pfyffer video, and he did claim to have knowledge of the events that took place in the video._

_Footnote: RESERVED FOR DESIGNATION #10983466: CIA Director Robert Teele_

_After performing some more field tests on the cryo-weapon, I have yet to confirm its usefulness. It shows flashes of potential, but it is often inconsistent. I would not recommend ordering more of them to be built for ground troops-not until I can get a more detailed analysis of the effects of the weapon. Until then, I am content in using the weapon myself, as long as ample ammunition can be supplied._

_Footnote: RESERVED FOR DESIGNATION #7754027: Liaison Noncommissioned Officer Rachel Kane_

_I’m sorry…I’ll explain when I get back…please don’t worry too much…_

* * *

 Kane watched him from the moment he got off of the plane. He helped Khalil off the plane and over to a few medics who were waiting by. He talked for a moment to the regional guy-Mwangi, and handed him a few papers. A couple times he looked over in her direction, but he would always look away after making brief eye contact, almost as if he was trying to stop himself from doing it.

He was straddling that line. That line between missions and everything else. He hadn’t quite crossed over yet. His head wasn’t in the right place, she thought. Maybe it wasn’t anywhere at all.

He continued to run the same routine as he normally would, placing all of his gear in the spots where they would always go-weapons on the rack, armor on the far table, and a short uplink to the main computer. Then he went back around and checked that everything was in the right place. Just to make sure. Or maybe just to distract himself. It was tough for Kane to know.

He awkwardly strolled over to her after he was finished with it, constantly double-taking while he walked.

“Do you think we could…talk?” There was a great amount of strain in his voice, though it was the pause that concerned her more.

She nodded, making a meek affirmative noise, but she didn’t think it was loud enough for him to hear. He responded with a small nod of his own, and he started to walk towards her, passing by and continuing onwards. She turned around and followed behind at the same pace.

It was hardly over a minute until the pair was just outside Kane’s makeshift quarters, though she didn’t recall having ever agreed to meet in her room. She removed an actual, physical key from her pocket and used it to open the door. Brick-and-mortar locks were more or less obsolete, but the older and less-equipped Al-Arish base still housed a few of them. Most considered them less secure. Some said they were more so.

With Paszek, the pinnacle of human electronic augmentation standing right beside her, she honestly could not tell which side of the poignant, yet ultimately irrelevant debate she was on.

They took their usual spots; Paszek sat on the edge of the cot, while Kane pushed the chair closer to the bed and sat in it herself.

Had the two of them been in the small room under better circumstances, one might call it “cozy”. But the tension was thick enough to cut with a knife; both of them were equally anxious and apprehensive to have this conversation. It seemed that the former sentiment barely won out.

“Do you want to start?” asked Kane.

“I…um…figure you probably have a few…questions…” Paszek responded.

She took a deep breath.

“Not really any questions…I just need answers.” She tried her best to stop it from sounding harsh.

He glanced up at her concerningly.

“The other day, we’re just having a normal conversation…and you act like you’ve seen a ghost. Then, just a few hours ago, you call me and start freaking out…like something was wrong…but nothing was wrong. Right? Nothing was wrong?”

“I thought something was wrong.”

“And what was that?”

“The guy…the masked guy…he knew who I was…I thought you were dead.”

“He told you I was _dead_?”

 “And…and it wasn’t just that. He said that _I_ was the one that did it. That I was the one that killed you.”

“I…I’m not really following here.”

“I don’t know how, but somehow this guy knows me. Like, _knows_ me. And he told me that it was strange to see me alive, and not to see my ‘leading lady’. I got mad. Real mad. He denied that he had anything to do with it…just said that ‘it was all you’.”

“Was he just trying to mess with you?”

“Maybe. But it didn’t seem like it. He seemed surprised…that I was surprised. Does that make sense?”

“A little.”

Kane continued.

“I think we should be more concerned with how this guy…the masked man, knows you. What else did he know about you?”

“He mentioned that he was a ‘savior’ of mine.”

“You don’t think, do you?”

“Don’t think what?”

“De Klerk? Back in Zurich?”

“Shit. You’re right.”

“I mean…we shouldn’t jump to any conclusions, but…”

“No, no…wait a minute. He was able to hack my DNI. He’s tech smart. De Klerk is only a medic. “

“Doesn’t mean he can’t use a computer.”

“There’s only one person I’ve known that could hack a DNI.”

“Paszek...we’ve been over this…Hendricks is dead…”

“I know, I know….but I’ve seen some crazy shit in my time…”

“ _Have_ seen? Or _are_ still seeing?”

Paszek’s eyes immediately darted downwards.

“No. I’m done. I’m done with… _that_.”

He paused.

“So is it him? De Klerk?”

“If we’re going off just personal connections…it would make the most sense. But it raises some questions…”

She continued.

“Why would De Klerk kill his own general? And those Egyptian officials?”

“The masked man…he’s an anarchist. He wants to destroy order.”

“And De Klerk fits the bill?”

“From the little bit that I talked to him, I’d say probably not. But I should give him a call anyways.”

“Maybe we should tell Teele.”

“I think you know better than anyone else that the CIA will find a way to screw this up.”

“I _think_ we should consider all of our options before trying to go after this guy ourselves.”

Paszek sighed.

“Let me talk to De Klerk. If we still think it’s him, then we tell Teele. If not, we keep this personal stuff under wraps. I don’t want them digging any further into either of us.”

Kane could only breathe a sigh herself. There never would be way good way to talk Paszek out of anything.

* * *

 It was a strange feeling for Paszek - having to wait for someone to answer a message. In the world they lived in, or rather, the world _he_ lived in, everything was instant. All he had to do was think about it and he was talking with someone else, or searching directly from the CIA database, or doing one of a million other things.

Of course, not everyone lived that way.

It was on the third call that Aart De Klerk finally picked up the phone.

“Ah, Commander! I wasn’t expecting to hear from you so soon.”

“Actually, it’s, uh…Captain now.”

“Great news then! Your promotion is well deserved, friend.”

He paused.

“But you did not call to talk about that, no?”

“General Pfyffer…you heard, right?”

He paused again, this time longer.

“…yes. I still don’t know what to make of it.”

“How are you feeling about it?”

“Not really too sad. Scared, more like. They…they still don’t who took him…and how they did it. For a man to just disappear like that? Leaves me scared.”

“Did you know the general well?”

“I never talked to him directly. He addressed us all before, but I never talked to him.”

 “Where have you been for the past few days?”

“Zurich. The medical base we set up is still overflowing. This is the first break I’ve had in a few days. What about you?”

“CIA stuff. Classified.”

“You be careful with those guys, you know? They hide things. And I don’t think that they would be happy to hear that I was in-“

“No one else knows, Sergeant.”

“Just call me Aart. We are friends, yes?”

“Of course.”

“Then may I offer some advice?”

“…you know, I could actually really use some right now.”

“That DNI of yours is not safe. I hear that some people are getting them removed. Maybe you should consider that.”

“Are you considering it?”

“What do you-Oh! No, Captain, I do not have one. I was never offered one.”

“You don’t have a DNI?”

“No.”

“Oh, well…uh…sorry. I just assumed you did, for…some reason.”

“After seeing the inside of that place, I think I’m lucky.”

“You’ve got no idea, Aart.”

Their conversation continued for another 15 minutes or so. De Klerk mostly discussed the shortcomings of the ZSF’s medical resources, and how the CDP was trying to gain some influence by funding their research programs. Interesting developments, but likely not the kind of issue that Paszek would ever be sent to deal with. It was far too political and far too grey for anyone to trust him with, right? They only sent him to deal with the _really_ bad guys, right? Just the ones that needed to die outright.

It’s not like it was his job to kill people. At least, they wouldn’t say that. His job was to “secure” something here, “rescue” someone there. But they certainly wouldn’t _mind_ if he happened to kill a few NRC or CDP along the way. Maybe more than a few. Maybe a few dozen.

It did leave a rather potent question up in the air, though. De Klerk couldn’t possibly be the man in the mask-he didn’t have a DNI. Then who in the world could it be? It had to be someone that knew Paszek on a deeply personal level, be a fiery revolutionary, _and_ have the capabilities to kidnap a ZSF general and hijack classified information. Such a tight niche was one that Paszek thought no one could possibly fill. No one that was alive, anyways.

A voice.

That damned voice. That woman’s voice that he couldn’t quite put his finger on…

“ _Death does not always extinguish._ ”

But then that other voice. The gruff one.

“ _Think what you’ve left behind._ ”

Why wouldn’t they just shut up?

“ _We need a way out._ ”

Okay then? Why wouldn’t they just tell him how to do it?

“ _Focus yourself, Paszek._ ”

He was focusing, alright. Focusing on not going insane.

The female voice came back.

“ _You just have to listen._ ”

He was listening, too! But it was clear that whatever he was hearing was not coming across as coherent.

The two voices started spouting off phrase after phrase, each less coherent than the last.

“ _Go back under._ ”

“ _Listen._ ”

“ _Think…left behind_ …”

“ _…way out…_ ”

Before long, a deafening ringing sound pierced the air, and Paszek could only hear the faintest of voices. He covered his ears in a futile attempt to drown it out, but was just that. Futile.

He was about to cry out in pain, but the sound stopped with no warning, and he cautiously removed his palms form his ears.

Paszek took a look around the room. It was completely normal. No crows. No icicles.

It had gotten to the point where normal meant suspicious.

* * *

 Kane sat at her computer, searching for any piece of information that could lead to the masked man.

A message from Paszek popped up in the corner.

“ _No go on De Klerk. No DNI._ ”

Damn. She wished it could have been that easy.

She chose to delay a response until she found anything useful; and to let Paszek get a few moments of peace. God knows he needed them.

Kane had replayed the Pfyffer video over and over again, hoping that it could yield something, but the prospects appeared slimmer with each viewing. Most of the video was dark-too dark to see anything of note in the background, but the lack of visible walls made the likely location a warehouse or something similar. But that didn’t narrow down anything at all. She was just grasping at straws. There was no timestamp on the video, but the general was still in a full military uniform and beret, and was never reported missing, so it must have taken place within a few hours of him being last seen. Unless the masked man had access to a private plane, the video couldn’t have been shot more than 300 miles away from Zurich. Still, this made nothing that much easier. He could have gone to France to the west, Germany to the north, Lichtenstein to the east, further south into Switzerland…even parts of Italy were fair game.

No. These were the wrong details. It didn’t matter where the general _was_ , or where the masked man _was_. It mattered where they were now. Pfyffer’s body still hadn’t been found, and wherever if happened to be located now (buried, stored, _displayed?_ ) would probably be a big help in finding out the identity of the masked man. Or, woman, Kane supposed.

 General Pfyffer didn’t have a DNI, but he _was_ an HVI, so there was a good chance that he had some kind of tracking device on his person.

A quick search of his identification number confirmed it. Kane was certain that the masked man would be smart enough to consider the tracking chip, but its location would nonetheless prove useful. Any piece of evidence could help form a connection to the masked man.

She sent an email to Hernandez. They’d have the location within the next few hours. Until then? More time for nothing. The previous day’s mission would be the only one they were to do in Africa; WA troops were coming in later in the week to retake Cairo. Just about all projections had them winning easily. Of course, the NRC didn’t have John Taylor on their side this time, so maybe Kane could actually trust the WA them this time.

It seemed unlikely that she or Paszek would be heading to the Middle East anytime soon. Fighting on the frontlines had more or less stalled-CDP forces were loosening their grip on the region. Kane remembered reading that they were very interested in absorbing Tajikistan into their pact, though the reason behind this she could only speculate. The country didn’t have much to offer in terms of resources, though its proximity to some WA assets may have proved desirable. In any case, Tajikistan looked like it would remain neutral for the time being.

Crazy as it was, Kane almost had a strange suspicion that the world may have finally started coming to its sense. Well, part of the way, anyway. Both the WA and the CDP seemed to be realizing that there were certain parts of the world that they just couldn’t control.

Hell, once the NRC were flushed out of Africa, she figured that could be, more or less, the end of any major combat for both sides. That would really be something. Maybe, just maybe, they could start doing more to reverse climate change-make the superstorms go away, just like they were dreaming about before the CDP formed.

It was blue sky thinking, no doubt about it, but it was comforting nonetheless. Kane just had to make sure that both herself and Paszek made it to that future. Or any future at all, really.

* * *

  _Mission Briefing for January 5 th, 2071: Chief Intelligence Officer Catlin Hernandez_

_As you all already know, General Cedric Pfyffer of the Zurich Security Forces was killed, on video, by an unknown assailant. Using the ZSF’s tracking chip technology, we were able to get a location on Pfyffer’s body, or at the very least were his tracking chip is located. A rather isolated area just outside of Halle, Germany is where we are receiving the signals from._

_Seeing as this is within WA borders, we are not expecting any hostiles or any combat, but precautions will be taken regardless. Captain Paszek and LSO Kane will lead an initial investigation, and further personnel will be sent in as needed._

_Footnote: RESERVED FOR DESIGNATION #7754027: Liaison Noncommissioned Officer Rachel Kane_

_Whenever you get the chance, could you talk to someone from the department about making a different template for these kinds of missions? I hate to use the same form for investigations AND full frontal assaults. People don’t seem to like to listen to me about this kind of stuff. Thanks in advance._

* * *

The outskirts of Halle would, under different circumstances, be rather refreshing. The chrome white and blue of the cities was nowhere to be seen, replaced by grass lots and a worn concrete that seemed almost vintage, given the context. There was nothing about the rustic warehouse, or its surroundings, that would suggest that an international fugitive would have used it as a base of operations. Perhaps that was the intent.

Now, of course, being in Halle only served to frustrate Paszek; this whole excursion was just a step in what he feared would be a mind-numbing goose chase at the reigns of the masked man. He wanted so badly for it to be easy-for the answer to who this guy was and where he wanted to be right in front of him. But it just wasn’t. Everything had to be cryptic and convoluted. Simple was becoming more and more of a scarcity in his life. As was sanity.

The warehouse, at first glance, was completely unremarkable. A modest amount of wooden crates, all unmarked, lined the walls. A few empty shelves filled in some of the gaps. In the center stood a forklift and a folding table that had been tossed on its side.

Of note was a damaged computer, both console and monitor, sitting on the floor near the forklift. Kane walked over to inspect it. The screen was mostly cracked, but a faint glimmer of light still shone from the outskirts of it. The console was a bit dusty and scratched, but altogether not too shabby.

“There’s an office in the back. Go check there and I’ll see if I can get anything from this.”

Paszek nodded and did as she asked.

Kane pushed the obsolete keyboard to the side and pressed the equally obsolete power button on the console. What remained of the screen lit up fully after about 50 seconds or so, and within three minutes she had access to the information on the computer.

She started to sift through them manually. Most of the files on it would suggest that a completely ordinary person owned the computer: emails to co-workers, spreadsheets about sales numbers, a few personal messages, and even about 17 pages of a screenplay. It seemed that someone working for the company that used to operate the warehouse used this computer.

Two files, though, stood out from the rest. One was a document entitled “A Message for My Dear Friend.”

It contained only the following information:

_Check in the back._

_-An Anonymous Friend_

Kane glanced over her shoulder. She could see Paszek clearly through the window into the office. Nothing appeared to be wrong; he was just sorting through a filing cabinet inside. She mentally discarded the note for now.

The second file was only titled by a random series of letters, numbers, and a handful of special characters, but the size suggested it was a fairly long video.

Kane hit play.

_A man, whose face is concealed by a hood, sits tied up in a small wooden chair, his wrists bound to the armrests. The infamous masked man walks up behind him and removes the hood, revealing one General Pfyffer._

_Pfyffer gasps for breath. The masked figure walks behind the camera, now out of the picture._

_The captive speaks. “What do you **want** from me!?”_

_The masked man lets out a small chuckle, though it’s still muddied by a voice modulator of some sort._

_“There’s a nothing I can get from you. It’s about what I can get from **them**.”_

_“What the hell are you talking about?”_

_“You were wise to ally with the WA. They seem to be gaining the upper hand in the war. If only your morality was as keen as your strategy.”_

_“Morality? You kidnapped me, asshole!”_

_“Your city was such a wondrous place before you let that corporation blot it out. Coalescence’s ethical bankruptcy was evident far before the ground was broken for their headquarters.”_

_“That’s not my fault! I didn’t plan that! I’m not even involved in that!”_

_“But you **did** shackle up with the Winslow Accord! The same men to give Coalescence all of their business! You saw no issue with this!”_

_“Screw you.”_

_“…I shouldn’t have expected anything more.”_

_A faint rustling of clothing could be heard. Pfyffer’s face twisted into a confused expression._

_“Surprised, General?”_

_“Who are you?”_

_“Never mind that. We’ve got work to do. Now just let me…”_

_After about 20 seconds, the masked figure reappeared on screen and started speaking once more._

Kane shut off the video. She had already seen that part a dozen times. This…extended cut, though, brought about a few new details. It was now clear that the masked figure, whoever they were, seemed to hold some kind of grudge against the Winslow Accord, but at the same time, was aiming to help the CDP either, a rather unique stance.

She also knew that there didn’t seem to be any personal connection between Pfyffer and this masked man…at least not one of any real significance. That didn’t really help narrow down the list of suspects, other than De Klerk, who Paszek had already ruled out.

Kane made a mental note of it all. There had to be something more on this computer.

* * *

 The files in the office cabinet were, even by military standards, incomparably dry. Almost all of it was in German, not that it mattered. Paszek could read German just fine. And 23 other languages. Another wonder of the DNI.

It consisted mostly of meeting reports and order sheets; the company worked in the pharmaceutical field, supplying bulk chemicals to other facilities for more specialization. Paszek thought that it might have been a decently opportunistic front for some kind of corruption, but the papers checked out. None of the numbers seemed to be too outlandish, and no corporate animosity was too tangible from the summaries. Business as usual, he supposed.

Paszek, however, had missed the only important thing in the whole damn room. A single college-rule sized piece of paper sat on the steel desk, having previously been buried underneath a stack of unlabeled hard-covers.

It was a note, written in a neat cursive.

_I hope you or one of your friends saw my video and directed you here, Paszek._

_There’s a lot we didn’t get to talk about earlier. I think things should be a little clearer by now. I know it’s been a bit inconvenient for you to be globetrotting, but I promise that you’ll be going home soon enough._

_You will find the general’s body just outside of here, inside of a dumpster. I doubt that it has been cleaned out in the last few days or so._

_I’ve got some packages for you back in the States. I’ll be more than happy to tell you where they all are. Give me a call once you arrive back in Atlanta._

_447002XXZ_

_All the best,_

_-Savior_

“…Kane…”

No response.

“Kane!”

“Give me a second here!”

“This is important!”

“Like I said, a second!”

Paszek quickly sighed and walked back out into the main section of the warehouse with the note in hand, holding it up for Kane to see. She swerved her head to see Paszek approaching.

“Is that…”

“Yeah.  A note. Written by him.”

“What does it say?”

“Pfyffer’s body is out back, and he wants me to go to Atlanta…says there’s some packages waiting for me.”

“Packages?”

“That’s the exact word he used.”

“Hmm…anything else?”

“There’s some kind of code on the bottom…four four seven zero zero two… _x_ -ray _x_ -ray _z_ ulu. I think it might be a way to contact him.”

“That’s not any kind of messaging code. It’s not anything I can recognize. But I can cross-check that string of characters and see if there’s a pattern.”

“Alright…yeah…I guess that sounds good.”

A beat.

“Oh…and there’s one more thing on the note.”

Kane looked up.

“It’s signed as ‘Savior’.”

Kane let out a deep breath.

“He...he’s really going all out on that, huh?”

“It’s like he’s taunting me. I don’t get it.”

“Maybe it’s an existential thing. Like…like something he’s doing is “saving” you. Maybe it’s really vague.”

“It sure doesn’t come off that way.”

“Well, there’s to be _some_ rational explanation for it, right?”

“Any of this seem rational to you?”

“Fair point.”

A modest silence maintained itself.

“I was able to find a bit more of the execution video. About a minute before what they put on TV.”

“And?”

“This guy….‘Savior’, or whatever he’s calling himself…he’s got a grudge against the WA and Coalescence, not necessarily in that order.”

“There’s only one person I know who fits that.”

“Please don’t…”

“How do we know?! How do we know it’s not Hendricks?!”

“You know how I know? We’ve got his body in the fucking morgue! What more do you want?!”

“I’ve seen shit, Rachel! Shit you won’t ever understand!”

“I’m not going to pretend that I understand it. What I’m trying to say is that Hendricks is dead.; You need to accept that!”

“I’ll accept it when we find him! When we find this guy! When he takes his fucking mask off and I see it for myself!”

“If that’s what you want to think, fine. I think hell might freeze over first..."

_Freeze over._

_Freeze over._

_Freeze._

_Frozen._

_Imagine yourself in a frozen forest._

_“Paszek! I need you to listen to me!”_

_Imagine somewhere safe._

_“Think about what you’ve left behind!”_

“Who **are** you!”

_“It’s not a matter of who…”_

_“It’s a matter of where…”_

“Tell me more! What the **fuck** is happening!?”

“ _Go back under._ _Find what you left behind.”_

“Ah!”

“Paszek! What the hell is going on?!”

Paszek opened his eyes to see a horrified Kane.

“I…I-I’m sorry about that…I just got a little…”

“Tell me what’s happening. Now.” she said sternly.

“It’s…it’s just flashes, is all. I get them sometimes…”

“It **sounded** like you were talking to someone. Some **thing**.”

“…It’s…it’s nothing…just little…flashes, like I said…”

Kane was not convinced.

“Look, I…we’re already going to Atlanta now. I’ll visit Coalescence and see if they can…uh…calibrate this thing.”

“You’re willing to go back there?”

“What would you have me do?”

She mentally cursed herself. Paszek had a way of being …absolutely frustrating at times. It wasn’t that she didn’t believe him. It was just…she didn’t believe he was giving her the whole story. Kane had seen the signs. Whatever he called them…flashes, episodes…it didn’t matter. It wouldn’t be the first time he had lied to her. But as always, there was more important shit to do. More important shit to worry about.

* * *

  _Personnel Report: Form B9, Section A, Subsection F: October 24 th, 2066_

_Subject: Corporal Ignacio Paszek_

_Evaluator: Commander John Taylor_

_Personal History: I was first introduced to Corporal Paszek when he was a part of Commander Hendricks’ hostage rescue unit in Ethiopia. After electing to stay behind in order to safely evacuate the hostages, he was critically injured by an enemy robot. I made the executive decision to immediately conscribe him into Project Prometheus. Though Paszek was initially grateful for my saving of his life, the others tell me he is growing increasingly insecure about the implementation of the DNI. However, I have seen nothing to indicate that this has affecting his contribution to this unit. Paszek has maintained good relationships with all of the other members, especially Commander Hendricks and Commander Hall. He has my highest recommendation for any and all black operations. Please see below._

_Notes: Takes orders well. Agreeable. Uses conventional methods effectively. Average combat skills, but above average awareness. Unremarkable personality. Usage of DNI limited, but not altogether poor. Not as receptive of technology as others. Doesn’t ask too many questions._

_Recommendations: Continue enlistment in Cyber-Soldier program. If trained properly, could be a highly efficient operative capable of working far behind enemy lines. Keep mission details limited. Solo work may be preferable, has a high intuition that may clash with less knowledgeable assets._

 

* * *

 “I have to say, Captain…I didn’t expect you see you back so soon.”

“Believe me…I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have to be.”

The two shook hands.

“And…Officer? Am I correct?”

“That’s right, Dr. Berg.”

“I received your message, Paszek. Something about a re-calibration?”

He pointed to his temple.

“Something isn’t quite right up here. I was hoping you could have your guys take a look at it.”

Berg clicked his pen.

“Could you perhaps describe the problem?”

“Just a couple of glitches. Interfacing issues. Nothing serious.”

“Forgive me for asking…but if it’s not serious, then why did you travel all this way?”

Paszek arched an eyebrow.

“Don’t get me wrong! We’ll fix whatever problems you’re having. I just…have to wonder when an active duty soldier is granted a leave to address a…well… _minor issue_.”

Paszek didn’t hesitate.

“We’ve got full clearance to be here. I can call up the Director right now if you want…”

Berg placed his pen on the clipboard and held a hand up in defense.

“Oh, no, no! By all means! Um…just give me a moment and we’ll get you to a room.”

Berg quickly pivoted and started walking back to the other end of the hallway.

Paszek turned to Kane.

“You doing alright?”

“You’re asking me?”

“Well, I mean…I’ve kinda been dragging across the world here for no reason…just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“What else would I be doing, really?”

“That position at GH?”

“I’ve got all the time I want to work a desk job. But if I want to help save the world, I’ve got to do it now, you know?

“That’s a pretty sound philosophy you’ve got there.”

Kane smiled.

It was bit disconcerting for Paszek for think too much about life after the military. Kane was smart. Probably too smart to be in the CIA in the first place. People were already offering her six figures, and that number would only get higher as she got older. But what the hell was he supposed to do? There would probably be some official position in the military that would take him…provided he didn’t fuck up anything too hard over the next decade. But that wasn’t exactly the kind of thing he was hoping to do. That would be more of the same. Variety was not a necessity now, but Paszek had enough foresight to know that he wouldn’t be singing the same tune God-knows-how-many years down the road. He was almost thirty years old, had no discernable skills, was more-or-less clinically insane, and didn’t even have a college degree. That’s about as close to unhireable as you’ll get. Even with how much better the economy had gotten, it still didn’t help to be a veteran of a special ops program where _five of its members starting murdering people_.

“Just follow me down here, Captain.”

* * *

 The room was familiar.

Coalescence had a habit of using the same design in every one of their hospitals. Zurich, Atlanta, Milwaukee, it didn’t matter. The concept had a strange effect, perhaps it drove in Coalescence’s “hive mind” ideology just a bit too far.

The memories it brought back weren’t too pleasant, either. Needles…scalpels…so many goddamn IV bags…but mostly that weird feeling of uneasiness. The room made it hard to tell what was real and what wasn’t. He wouldn’t even be surprised if John Taylor or Sebastian Krueger strolled on in the door. That kind of shit became the thing to _expect_.

Berg went on for a few minutes explaining the details of it all. They were going to put him in a medically induced coma, using the same drugs that they used during the surgery 6 years ago. This is no coincidence, it was just the best combination of drugs they had to shut down the whole human brain. Of course, there was one part of Paszek’s brain that they couldn’t turn off, even if they wanted to. When the DNI runs on its own, it gives the doctors a clean slate, an opportunity to observe its processes without any interference.

“We’ve done this at least eight dozen times. You’ve got nothing to worry about.”

Kane watched skeptically from the other end of the room.

“How long will it take?”

“An hour, at the least…but it’s difficult to say exactly how long it would take us to fix anything, should we find an issue.”

“Will I be out of here by the end of the day?”

“Er…probably. Again, I can’t give you any concret-“

“Fine. Whatever. Let’s get this over with.”

Kane gave a slight forced smile and waved. Paszek returned it.

She left the room afterwards, but not because anyone asked her to. She just didn’t need to see this.

It took about 90 seconds for the gas being pumped through the facemask to knock Paszek out.

* * *

 They usually said that you were supposed to see a pitch black or a pure white when you were put under. Paszek saw white…but it wasn’t pure…far from it.

It was that damned snow white. It tried so hard to be the pure white. But it wasn’t. It had the blue hint to it and the speckles of grey and black in it that ruined it.

Paszek already knew what was next.

The trees came. The evergreens with the same soiled snow sitting atop its branches. Soon there was a whole landscape of them.

It was the fucking Frozen Forest. Here he was, in the midst of an unadulterated DNI, and this was what it came to? The Frozen Forest?

No. That couldn’t be it.

There had to be more. There had to be something else going on, right? Right?

“ _I think something’s wrong_ ”

Who the fuck said that?

“ _I feel it too…it’s like he…shut down or something…_ ”

“Hello? Is anyone there?”

“ _Paszek! Paszek! Oh my God…is that really you?!_ ”

“Who’s there?!”

“ _Paszek! Where are you! I need to find you!_ ”

“I’m in the forest!”

“ _Give me a second! I’ll be right there!_ ”

“ _Is his mind really back here?_ ”

“ _It’s him. I **know** it’s him!_ ”

He should’ve recognized that voice the first time he heard it.

She seemed to materialize out of nothing.

“Hall?”

“Yeah!  It’s me.”

“ _You’re telling me he’s really here, Sarah?_ ”

She looked up towards the sky, seemingly speaking at nothing.

“Yes! He’s here!”

She turned back towards Paszek.

“God…where do I start?”

“Am I…imagining this?”

“No. Well…kind of…we’re all inside your mind right now. But it _is_ real. I’m real.”

Paszek’s mouth hung slightly open.

“I…I don’t follow…”

“Look…there’s a lot to explain. He can probably do it better than me.”

“He?”

“ _Listen only to the sound of my voice. Let your mind relax. Let your thoughts drift. Let the bad memories fade. Let peace be upon you. Surrender yourself to your dreams. Let them wash over you like the gentle waves of the bluest ocean. Let them envelop you. Comfort you.”_

No. No way.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Paszek must confront what he's left behind.

No, no, no, no, no. This wasn’t it. This wasn’t happening. Not now. No. Nope. This couldn’t be happening. There was so much wrong. So much wrong. Corvus, Hall, the fucking Frozen Forest. No. No. No. This wasn’t happening. He never should have come back. He shouldn’t have done this.

“This can’t…this can’t be real…” Paszek struggled to get much further in his speech.

“Paszek…I know this is a lot to take in at once, but I’m going to need you to stay with me on this.”

“ _I believe it may be best for-_ ”

“Corvus, I don’t think you’re helping too much right now.” Hall interrupted.

“How…how is _he_ here!?” Paszek cried out.

“ _Well…_ ”

“You said you would leave, right!? That you would get out of my fucking head!? What happened to that?!”

Corvus departed from his omnipresent state and seemed to materialize right in front of Paszek and Hall. His physical form looked not dissimilar to when Paszek saw him last, but he had made himself a bit shorter, now standing more or less even with the two soldiers.

“ _Captain…I had every intention of keeping my promise._ ”

He gestured upwards, where, above the frosted treetops of the Frozen Forest, laid a light blue grid, a barrier of sorts.

“ _It is much more of a challenge to leave the mind than it is to enter it. There was simply no vessel that was suitable for me. Frankly, there still isn’t yet._ ”

Hall stepped in.

“That’s where we were hoping you could help us.”

“What…I don’t follow.”

“ _With the rest of your brain working, we couldn’t communicate directly with you. Even while you slept, the minute amount of activity was blocking us from reaching you. We could get little fragments of information to you…little snippets of data. But that was all._ ”

“Basically,” Hall continued. “Corvus and I have spent the past few months here. Inside your mind. Sometimes we’re in the middle of Singapore. Sometimes the aquifer in Egypt. Sometimes Ethiopia. But usually, we find ourselves right here. In the Frozen Forest.”

She paused.

“Wonder whose fault that is…”

“ _Blame Dr. Salim, not me._ ”

“Anyways…like Corvus said, we couldn’t really talk to you before. All we could do was talk and talk and talk…and hope that it reached you.”

Paszek narrowed his eyes.

“Those voices…those voices in my head…that was you?”

He turned to Corvus.

“And _you_?”

Corvus took a step forward.

“ _I suppose it was. I assure you that our intentions were not to cause you any more mental strife then you have already endured._ ”

“Then what _are_ your intentions, then?! Why am I here?! Why are you here?! What do you want from me?!”

Hall walked closer to Corvus and spoke softly to him.

“I think he needs a little bit of time to process all of this…maybe you should…leave for now…”

“ _Sarah, I don’t wish for him and me to be at odds._ ”

“We can fix that later, okay? But now…we need him to focus.”

“ _Yes…you are correct. You know where to find me._ ”

Corvus turned around, took a few steps, and disappeared in the same fashion that he arrived in.

Paszek quickly collapsed from his standing position to a seated one, his hands over his head. He just didn’t get it. He didn’t. How the hell was he storing two separate consciouses inside of his mind? Not to mention his own, of course. How were they living here? What was it like? Did they eat? Did they sleep? Could they see his actions? His thoughts? And why was Corvus so…different? He knew they had left on decent terms…but the way he acted was just so… _strange_. Not hostile, or plotting, or even brooding, like he was before. Just strange.

Hall walked closer to Paszek.

“I…I just don’t get it.”

She sat down on the snow, right beside him.

“You were inside my head, right? Now we’re inside yours. Well…sort of. Corvus had some influence here too. But it’s the same idea. You’re you, and you’re real. I’m me, and I’m real.”

“And Corvus?”

“He’s real too.”

“You seem to be fine with that.”

Hall looked downwards.

“He controlled you, Hall! And he controlled Taylor, and Diaz, and Maretti, and me and Hendricks…how are you okay with that?!”

She took a deep breath.

“That wasn’t him, alright.”

“The fuck do you mean? Corvus _destroyed_ our lives! They’re all dead, you know that! We’re the only ones left, and the way things are looking right now, I don’t think either of us is lasting too long either!”

He paused.

“Do you know the fucked-up shit he did to me? He made me drown. He forced me to kill Maretti. He made me _watch_ as Rachel died! As she choked and died like an animal!”

“He could’ve killed her for real if he had wanted to…”

“And that makes what he did okay!? You have no ide-”

“What I’m _trying_ to say is that…that wasn’t the Corvus I know now. He’s different. He’s changed. I promise.”

“You’re so sure?”

“We’ve been in here for months, Paszek. _Months_. A few days after Zurich…he started talking to me. Just apologizing. Profusely apologizing. I could almost hear him bawling, he was so sorry about what he had done…it felt weird to me…but I couldn’t help but think that he was being entirely sincere.”

She sighed.

“So I started talking with him. He’s confused…so confused. I’m just trying to help with get through it…to try and understand himself. And he’s making progress…slow progress…but it’s something.”

Hall paused again.

“He means well, Paszek. Corvus just wants to make up for what he’s done. He wants to help people. And he already has, in a way…”

“What do you mean?”

“You know how he was created…he’s an amalgamation of thirty different people…that means he’s smart. He understands things about people. Things you or I, even with the DNI, will never understand. The more I talked, the more personal we got…the more he was able to help me deal with the issues I have…and not just the ones he caused. God, Paszek…we’ve talked for hundreds of hours…I _know_ Corvus. He is good. Not pure, not innocent, but good. Please…don’t blame him for the things that happened.”

“God…I can’t believe I hearing this…from you, of all people!”

“I swear, Paszek! I swear that it wasn’t him! It wasn’t the real Corvus! You said it yourself! He was blinded by rage! You unlocked…the real Corvus. If you had any idea how thankful he is for you doing that…”

“ _Thankful_?! Sarah! Are you listening to what you are saying?!”

“Didn’t you tell Corvus that he shouldn’t define himself by his past?! Didn’t you say that?!”

“As if I meant a fucking word of that! I told him that so that I could escape! And you know what? It fucking worked!”

“We’re not getting anywhere with this! I don’t need you to forgive him. Not yet, at least. But if you can’t put aside what happened with the rest of the team…then he’ll be in your head for the rest of your life. Is that what you want?”

Paszek sighed.

“How do I get him out?”

Hall spoke louder now.

“Corvus, can we get a change of setting, here?”

“ _The facility?_ ”

“Yeah, there.”

“ _Alright. Just a moment…_ ”

In an instant, the frost and towering trees of the Frozen Forest was gone, and replacing it was a medium-sized laboratory. On one wall lied a grid of shelves, like an oversized filing cabinet. Gurneys and desks with computers and other tools were scattered about the rest of the room. Three figures in lab coats examined a patient on one of the gurneys, who was mostly obscured from Hall and Paszek’s point of view.

“Where are we? How are we seeing this?” Paszek asked.

“ _Everyone whose DNI I have entered…I have access to all of their memories. I have no reason, and no right, in truth, to sort through most of them…but those of Sebastian Krueger have proved informative._ ”

“So…this is a Coalescence building?”

“Not quite.” Hall said. “It’s a CIA lab located in the Pentagon. Since the CIA has bankrolled all of Krueger’s projects, he’s been in every inch of the facility.”

“Why is this important, though?”

“The bodies they keep down there, those are the bodies of every candidate for Project Prometheus. Diaz’s body is buried underneath hundreds of tons of rubble…but Taylor and Maretti, even some of the earlier subjects…they’re all down there.”

“And you…your body, that is…you’re down there, too?”

“Yes. And no. The thing is, though…”

She took a deep breath.

“I’m not really dead.”

Paszek paused and shook his head.

“No. That’s wrong. _I_ killed you! I did that!”

“You interfaced with me and killed me in a simulation. That’s all you did.”

“But the interface…that should’ve left you dead…”

“Brain-dead, yes. But with a DNI…being brain-dead means less than it normally does.”

“ _I created this place…this existence within the DNI, as a way for us to live on after death. But it didn’t work quite the way I had intended it to. The ones who died from physical causes…external injuries and such, they never made it here. Their DNI died alongside them._ ”

Corvus paused.

“ _But Sarah was a special case. You see, her wounds were not life-threatening. So while your interfacing may have shut down most of her brain…the rest of her body, and more importantly, her DNI…were all intact. And thus she is here._ ”

“Well…that…that’s great, right? That you’re still alive, technically”

Paszek turned towards Hall.

“But what are we going to do about that?”

“ _An interface does not ‘fry’ one’s brain, like we had supposed before. Rather, it merely powers off every part of it except the DNI. It’s not dissimilar to what’s happening to you right now. If you can find Sarah’s body, and administer the correct medication in the right dosage…she should come back._ ”

“Just like that?”

“It’s not going to be easy.” said Hall. “You’re going to have a find a way to get yourself in, and get both of us out. And they’re definitely not going to let you just walk in.”

“ _Ignacio, if I-_ ”

“Don’t call me that.”

“ _I’m sorry…I didn’t mean to upset you…_ ”

Corvus took a moment to reset himself, so Hall stepped in to finish.

“Your clearance level isn’t high enough to even _know_ about the facility, let alone get in. But if Rachel Kane was given even a modest promotion, she would have access to the lab.”

“ _Would she be willing to help us? You two are still in a relationship, yes?_ ”

“Wait? You two…you’re-”

The trio grew silent.

“We don’t have time for this, Hall.” said Paszek. “Yeah, I should be able to get her on board…if she’ll believe what’s happening at all…”

“Well, uh…good, I suppose.”

Another bout of silence.

“But what about you, Corvus? How do I get _you_ out of my head?”

The contempt was more than evident in Paszek’s voice.

“ _That…is a bit more complicated. But there is no reason to worry about that until you are able to revive Sarah._ ”

“And why is that?”

“ _This realm is of my own creation – removing me from your DNI would… **will** , in theory, cause everything here to cease to exist. Sarah must be put back into her own body before that happens._”

“I don’t know how I’ve got in here. The doctors are probably going to be waking me up soon…I _need_ to know how to remove you from my DNI before I’m gone!”

“ _Yes, yes, of course. Like I said, it is less straight-forward than you might think. The sheer amount of data that constitutes by sentience will prove to be something of an issue when trying to transfer me into another vessel._ ”

He motioned towards Paszek.

“ _Your DNI is just powerful enough to hold myself and Sarah inside of it. But it would be impractical and unethical for me to simply take control of another person with a DNI._ ”

“Why don’t we just put you back into the Coalescence mainframe?”

“ _There would be nothing stopping you from doing such a thing, but…well…_ ”

Corvus couldn’t bear to finish his sentence out loud.

“He wants to live. Like a human.” said Hall. “He wants to live in a body like ours. To coexist.”

“What makes you think you deserve that?!”

“ _I don’t deserve it._ ”

Paszek was taken aback.

“ _I know that the things I have done are reprehensible. Unforgivable. I know that I will never gain your trust and your respect. I don’t deserve that either. All I ask is for a second chance at life. Not to live as an omniscient figure…but as an equal._ ”

Paszek only narrowed his eyes and slightly shook his head.

“ _I can’t force you to do anything. If you want to put me back into a computer, I can’t stop you. If you want to purge your DNI and destroy me altogether, I can’t stop you. It is all up to you to decide what happens to me._ ”

He paused.

“ _But I hope that somewhere inside of you…you can find it in your heart to let me live._ ”

Silence encompassed the three as the Frozen Forest returned to the background.

“ _I don’t need your answer right now. I understand that we’ve given you a lot to think about now. Just remember-_ ”

“D.C. Pentagon. Get Kane in. Get me out. Between you and her…you should be able to figure out the rest.”

“Hall, if everything doesn’t go right…”

“I know you’ll find a way. You’re too determined for me to believe otherwise.”

The Forest began to fade away, with portions of the scenery pixelating and lifting off into the air. Hall and Corvus began to fizzle in and out of sight.

“They’re waking me up! I have to go now!”

“ _Until next time_.”

“See you on the other side.”

* * *

 

Paszek was already prepared with his answers to Dr. Berg’s questions. Yes, he felt much better now. Yes, he could see just fine. No, there was no discomfort. No, nothing unusual happened during the surgery. Of course, all of those were lies, but it didn’t really matter. Paszek was there for Kane’s sake and Berg was there for a paycheck, nothing more.

 What did those surgeons actually do inside his brain? Probably nothing more than a re-calibration, which was their sophisticated way of saying they turned it off and back on again. It’s not like their reasoning was baseless; that _was_ a legitimate solution to a number of DNI issues. But it always left Paszek wondering why he needed a doctor to do that kind of shit for him.

Kane was waiting just outside the door. Berg essentially regurgitated the some information Paszek had told him minutes earlier, with Kane nodding along all the while.

Paszek wasn’t going to pour on all of the details onto Kane just yet. He was still sorting through it himself, and relaying all of that to her would only further complicate the issue. Plus, there was still the masked man to worry about. He was supposed to get into contact with him somehow…but the means of this were foggy.

After a few minutes of pseudo-technical talk, Berg handed Kane a small tablet computer showing the diagnostics of their exam. A particular point caught her eye.

“Doctor, this number here…eight-two-two-zero-zero-two-gamma-victor-uniform…what is that?”

“That would be his DNI authorization code. Assigned upon installation.”

“Yeah…alright…thank you for your time, doctor.”

“It’s my pleasure, Officer. And Captain…don’t hesitate to come back in if you feel anything odd. We’re always here to help.”

“Definitely, doc.”

A quick smile and a nod, and Berg retreated back into the surgery room, taking the tablet with him.

“Rachel, I need to-”

“Hold that thought. The code that Savior put on his message to you – it follows the same alphanumeric pattern of your DNI authorization code.”

“So we can contact him?”

“Well, yes…but if we plug that code into our database…we can find out who he is.”

“I don’t think I have access to that kind of information.”

“But I do. Let’s head back to the hotel and figure things out there.”

* * *

 

Teele had set them up in a pretty posh place. Gave Paszek some spiel about “always getting the best for my guys.” He wasn’t going to complain about it, but the situation, like everything else that had been happening in the past few weeks, still rubbed Paszek the wrong way. It felt like Teele was trying to buy their trust.

Paszek knew that he was more or less CIA property until his enlistment finished, but that didn’t mean he trusted them at all. The Black Project in Singapore…the Nova Six…the shady dealings with Krueger…the decision to execute Taylor’s squad, along with mythical man Jae Xiong…all of it was still fresh in his mind.

Kane knew all about it too. She had made it clear that she didn’t like what the CIA was doing. But a part of Paszek, just a tiny lingering part, was under the impression that Kane might not have been entirely truthful during their time in Singapore and Egypt. Not that Paszek could blame her; there were way too many things in play during that hectic time to even try to consider.

He struggled to think of how exactly he was going to break the news to her. That Hall was still alive, and stuck inside of his mind. That Corvus, the virus that had torn apart their world, was in there too. And that he wanted to help them. It was a ridiculous thing to say out loud. Even being in the Frozen Forest, Paszek had a hard time believing it himself. That would be something that Kane could never truly understand, in Paszek’s eyes. Yes, she had heard his testimonies and his descriptions of the experience, and yes, she could recognize the emotional strain it had on him. But to be there, for real? That was something completely different. No amount of explanation would get her to know what it was like.

Maybe it was for the better.

* * *

 

“Four-four-seven-zero-zero-two-xray-xray-zulu?”

“Yeah, that’s it.”

“Alright…give me a second…”

Kane typed away on her computer. She squinted after the results popped up on her screen.

_No results for your search criteria could be found._

_Codes that have been assigned within the last 7 days may not appear._

_If you believe this to be a mistake, please contact your regional intelligence officer._

“When was the last time Coalescence fitted someone with a DNI?” asked Paszek.

“There was a surgery in Milwaukee in…let’s see…” she typed a bit more. “2070. Just before Taylor discovered the black site.”

“So there’s no way the number he gave us was a DNI code. It doesn’t exist.”

“Have you tried it calling him, like, as if it _was_ one anyways?”

“I suppose I should. What if I can’t reach him?”

“He’s talked to you before. I figure…he can find a way to do it again, if he needs to.”

“Yeah…yeah, you’re right. I’ll try to communicate using that code and go from there.”

As a silence overtook their room, Kane got up from her chair and sat down next to Paszek on one of the two beds.

“I’m sorry about yelling at you back in Germany. I…I know I’m not going to be able to know what you’re going through.”

“No, no…I’m sorry. I was acting irrational. This…Savior is just getting to me…”

“I shouldn’t have made you come back to Coalescence. The things they’ve done…”

Paszek reached his hand over to clasp Kane’s.

“Rachel…while I was in there….I…saw things. When they-”

Kane didn’t let him finish.

“What did they do to you?”

Paszek looked down.

She spoke quicker, and with more vigor.

“What did they do to you there?! Did they hurt you?! Why didn’t you say anything?!”

“Rachel…”

“Oh my God…this is my fault…I never should-”

“Rachel!”

She stopped and stared at him.

“They didn’t do anything to me. They just put me to sleep and re-calibrated. It’s what I saw after…that’s what’s weird.”

He paused.

“I lied to you back in Halle. I was hearing voices. And I finally found out where they came from.”

Another beat.

“Taylor, Diaz, Maretti…they’re all dead. But Hall…Sarah Hall is still alive. And she’s in here.”

He pointed to his temple. Kane shook her head.

“No…no, you interfaced with her. You…you killed her…right?”

“That’s what I thought. That’s what I thought too, but...I…I wake up and I’m back in the Frozen Forest. And it’s not a dream. I know it wasn’t. Hall, she was there. She was talking to me. It was the same as in Zurich.”

“…And…and you’re _sure_ this is real? That you weren’t dreaming, or something?”

“I’ve seen enough. Enough to know this was real. Hall was talking to me…she’s telling me that she’s been trapped in my head ever since I interfaced with her. But that’s not all, she says. She tells me that there’s a way for me to get her out. That her body is in the Pentagon, and that I can transfer her consciousness back into it.”

Kane sighed and rubbed her eyes.

“I know, alright! I know it’s crazy. But it makes sense. Diaz, Taylor, Hendricks, Maretti, they all died from physical complications. Hall, though? She only had a few cracked ribs; my interface is what killed her! Except…it didn’t, okay! It just left her brain dead! But we can save her! Bring her back to life!”

“Paszek…if we were keeping Hall’s body in DC, I would know about it…”

“Almost! You’re almost right! But he told me that your only one security level away from knowing about it. Just one more promotion and you’ll know.”

“He? Who are you…talking about now?

“You remember when I told you that I was cured?”

“Igg…don’t you fucking do this to me. Don’t you tell me that-”

“Yes, it’s him, Rachel. It’s Corvus. He’s still in my head.”

She quickly pulled her hand away from his and stood up, raising her arms in anger.

“How could you lie to me like that?! Why would you fool me into thinking you were alright?! You know how much I care about you! What were you trying to accomplish! I can’t-”

“Rachel…”

“We spent all this time together and you’ve still got a virus in your mind!”

“Rachel…”

“How can I expect you to be truthful in the future if-”

“ _Rachel!_ ”

They stared down.

“I…I thought he had left. He _told_ me he was going to. But when I go under the knife, it’s not just Hall there. Corvus was there too. But I swear…he’s not how he was before. He wasn’t hostile. He didn’t try to hurt us. Hall’s been trapped with him for months now, and she vouched for him.”

He almost let out a crazed chuckle.

“Corvus…he’s trying to help us.”

Kane sat back down, but this time on the opposite bed.

“Paszek, I’m not going to sugarcoat this.”

She paused.

“I’ve read every page of every file I have access to regarding Project Prometheus. I didn’t object when my superiors ordered to terminate the operatives that found the Black Station. Granted, I didn’t know it was Taylor’s squad…but whatever, I’m getting off topic…The point is…I’m no scientist, but I know that Corvus is an _evil_ and _corrupting_ entity. It doesn’t care about us. It doesn’t want to help us.”

Another pause from Kane.

“I think you’re going insane. I think Corvus is still corrupting you…trying to trick you into doing something at the Pentagon by using some…fake version of Hall as motivation. I think I need to get you help before it gets worse. Before you forget who Corvus really is, and who _you_ really are.”

“Rachel… I know you’re just trying to help…but I’m not sick. He’s not messing with me. He just wants Hall to come back! Don’t you!?”

“Of course I would want her to be alive! But that doesn’t change the fact that what you’re saying to me is nonsense!”

“It’s not nonsense! It’s real! I saw it with my own eyes! Heard it myself!”

“What’s stopping any of that from being a DNI hallucination?! Nothing, that’s what!”

“I know Hall is in there somewhere! I served alongside her for five years! I know her! This isn’t a recreation…or a fake…or anything else! She’s trapped and I have to free her!”

“Ignacio…there are places we can get help. Outside Coalescence, outside the CIA…I have some connections…I can call in some favors…I just want the real you back!”

“ _Whatever happens…I’m still me._ ”

“I want to believe that…I really do.”

She sighed.

“If you don’t want help now…I think that’s pretty naïve of you…but fine…we’ll catch Savior and worry about it afterwards…but whatever _this_ is…whatever we’re building here…I need to put it on hold.”

Paszek stared at her with his mouth slightly open in disarray.

“I’ll always be here for you…you know that. But I can’t be in a _real_ relationship with you if I can’t trust you. I hope you understand that.”

“Kane…I think I just need to…step outside for a moment, alright?”

His normally gruff voice was starting to break up, and Kane could tell. She didn’t protest to his leaving of the room. Where he went? She didn’t care, not at the moment.

Kane needed to be alone just as bad as he did.

* * *

 

Kane was wrong, but she was also right.

She was wrong in agreeing that Paszek heading to Coalescence was a good idea. Their latest shouting match had made that more than clear.

But she was right in saying that Paszek needed help. He did. He wasn’t well. Even if it wasn’t exactly what she thought it was…there was still something… _off_ about him. Maybe he’d do better if he wasn’t contracted by the CIA. Maybe he’d work better around other soldiers.

She was getting off track. That was the far future. She needed to focus on the near future. What were they going to do tomorrow? The next day? Day after that?

Kane was sure of one thing, they weren’t going to be following Paszek’s insane plan to resurrect a very clearly dead Sarah Hall. It wasn’t absurd in itself to think that the CIA was keeping their bodies…but for her to be able to be revived? That was silly. The DNI invented a way to cheat mental death, but not physical death. Dead still meant dead.

Both she and Paszek knew that if they had a way to bring people back from the dead with a DNI…Kane would be the first person to jump on it. John, Sebastian, Peter, hell, even Jacob deserved another chance. And Sarah, as well, of course. But that didn’t matter. She knew it was impossible.

Maybe she had been too hard on him about it, though. She had just apologized about yelling at him in Germany…and she just yelled at him some more. It’s not like it wasn’t justified, but that didn’t stop her from feeling bad about it.

The fact that they had both gotten so heated in the past two days was reason enough Kane to want to take a break from their relationship…if they could even call it that. They spent most of their time together, yes. She loved him, obviously not quite as much as he loved her, by his own admission. But they had hardly even kissed, let alone gotten any further. In any case, she knew she did the right thing. Paszek had lost her trust, and once he earned it back, they could pick up where they left off.

Kane told herself she would make that call in the morning. She wasn’t lying when she said she had connections made and favors to cash.

She sure hoped that Wes had kept the same number from college.

* * *

 

He had done this all wrong.

He had fucked up.

All he had to do was tell her what he had seen in a concise and clear manner, and fucked that up royally. Now she thought he was insane. Which, all things considered, wasn’t such a preposterous thing to say in Paszek’s honest opinion.

Maybe he was insane. But he was right about this. The Frozen Forest had convinced him of that. Corvus had done a pretty shitty job of recreating Hendricks and Diaz and Maretti…there’s no way he could fool anyone into believing that Hall was alive if she wasn’t…well, _actually alive_.

It could wait, though. Paszek knew that Kane would come back around. And even though he wasn’t too fond of having Hall and Corvus in his brain, there wasn’t any element of time. They could stay in there as long as they need to. Maybe it for the best. Both he and Corvus needed some time to reflect before they could make a decision about what exactly to do with the latter…

He needed his mind off of Corvus and Sarah and Rachel, anyways.

The van was as secure a place as any.

_447002XXZ_

Four and a half seconds of silence.

Another half second of static.

“Late flight, Paszek?” It was the same voice modulator.

“How am I calling you on a DNI that doesn’t exist?”

“Just because something doesn’t exist in your system…doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist in someone else’s, right?”

“You saying you got an off-the-book DNI?”

“It’s not in your book, that’s for sure.”

Fuck, this guy was frustrating.

“Why did you want me to call you?”

“You don’t need to hear my little monologue. It will be on the news tomorrow. But I figure, given your current disability, I should offer you a head start.”

“Head start?”

“Within a few dozen miles or so, I’ve placed four bombs. They aren’t anything nuclear. They won’t knock down the whole city. But it’s enough to do some damage. Take some lives. I won’t set them off just yet. I play by the rules. You’ll get some time to find them first.”

“Where did you set them!?”

“Paszek…it’s 2071. You don’t need me to tell you where to find them. It’ll be easy enough to do on your own.”

“How-”

“Remember, watch the news tomorrow. That should help clear things up.”

It annoyed Paszek just how brief all of his interactions with this mysterious Savior had to be. He talked a big game…but what exactly had he done? He had kidnapped one general and _might have_ planted some bombs. But he has the disposition of a Raul Menendez character…someone who feels they are changing the world.

Paszek waited another half hour before returning to the room. Kane was already asleep, or trying to fall asleep. He briefly pondered waking her up and telling her about Savior’s message…but it would be pointless. Paszek didn’t actually have any other information, other than that there bombs planted. Where? How? He had no more of an idea than anyone else.

The bed on the right was open. He set an internal alarm for 7 AM.

It was going to be a long day tomorrow.

* * *

 

“Hey!”

She shook him, this time a bit more violently.

Paszek groggily opened his eyes and sat up. The time? 6:58. This woman was more of a machine than he was.

“Our guy is on the news again.”

“What is he-” Paszek groaned, before the television interrupted his thought.

“ _Since you took the liberty of censoring my message last time, I figure I’d make the executive decisions this time around._ ”

The ticker and sidebars that came standard on the broadcast were gone. He had hijacked the channel.

“ _Your civilization is meaningless. You can sit and pretend that the world is in order, but you all know deep down that chaos is what rules. These blots on society...these plagues...they will consume you before you can control them._ _But you don’t have to take my word for it. You’ll find out for yourselves soon enough._ ”

Kane rolled her eyes at that line.

“ _I have placed three rather sizable explosive devices in the area. If you are a civilian who doesn’t work for the Coalescence Corporation, then congratulations – you’re safe for now. Labcoats, law enforcement officers, and government workers – you should start checking underneath your desks. You have until 5:30 tonight._ ”

And once again, he chose to keep his message concise, despite promising a greater explanation to Paszek last night.

“Did you get all of that?” Kane asked.

“Yeah…yeah, I got it.”

He stepped out of the bed.

“I used that code to call him last night…and it worked.”

“But I checked, it doesn’t-”

“Well, apparently, it does exist. We just don’t know about it.”

“What did he say?”

“Nothing useful. Just more of the same ramblings. Stuff about chaos…power…control…I still don’t know exactly what he wants.”

A short silence.

“How long will you need to get ready?” Kane asked.

“Just need about 10 minutes, then we’re good to go.”

Paszek quickly exited the bed and briskly walked straight towards the restroom, stopping just outside the door to open the closet and grab a clean uniform.

Kane dialed the number.

* * *

 

The first ring wasn’t eve halfway over when the call was picked up.

“Hello. I don’t have this number saved. Who’s calling?”

“Am I speaking to Wes Myers?”

“Yeah! Uh, I mean, yes. You are speaking to him.”

“Wes, it’s-”

“Wait a second…Rachel? Is that you?”

“Yeah, Wes, it’s me. I need you to-”

“I haven’t heard from you in almost a decade! Well, not that…well not that I’m not happy to talk to you, but why-”

“CIA stuff. Look, I need a favor.”

“What do you need?”

“A friend of mine is having some…malfunctions…”

“Umm, Rachel…that’s not very specific. I’m gonna need more than that.”

“Some neural issues.”

“So…do you just not know, or are you not telling me the whole story? Because I really can’t help you if-”

“He’s got a DNI, alright? And it’s messing with his brain.”

“Oh…man…gosh…I’m real sorry about that.”

“If we bring him in to COMET, can you make sure he gets fixed?”

“Rachel…I would…but, uh…here’s the thing…I, uh, kinda got laid off by them…”

“You what?!”

“Their HQ in Zurich got destroyed in the attack! They had to downsize…I was just an expendable piece of the puzzle…”

“Wes, I’m desperate here. I need to find a way to work out this problem he’s got.”

“If you can get me in a lab, with the right resources…then yeah, I could take a look. But I can’t promise anything. DNIs are weird, man.”

“Thank you, Wes. Are you still going to be using this number?”

“I will be until VHE finally, uh, calls me back.”

“Got it. I’ve got to leave now. Flip on the news and you’ll understand why.”

“Rach-”

She hung up well before Wes could finish his thought.

However, before Rachel could finishing formulating a thought of her own…

Ring. Ring. Ring.

“Officer Kane.”

“Director. I trust you’re calling about that last news segment.”

“He placed location beacons on his bombs. We already know where they are. Coalescence building.”

“And?”

“That’s it. He put three of them in the same building. We’ve already starting evacuating, even though there weren’t too many people there.”

“You need us there?”

“Yes. I have bomb squad en route, but you two might be able to uncover something more about this guy with whatever evidence he leaves behind.”

“Got it. We’ll be over in 30.”

Kane sat in silence for a few minutes after Teele disconnected. She as pleasantly surprised to see that Paszek continued to act civil towards her, even after last night. Or at the very least, he seemed to be acting like it. Kane knew she had done the right thing; more than anything else, taking their relationship back a few steps would motivate him to beat Corvus, to conquer whatever was corrupting him.

But at the same time, it worried her. Paszek’s unnerving ability to change his attitude on a dime seemed to only compound itself with addition of real tension between him and Kane. Could she really believe him when he said he was alright? She wanted to, that’s for sure. But was his mind always in the right place? Was it _ever_ in the right place? The more she thought about it, the more she just wished Wes could help them out sooner, rather than later.

Whatever. It wasn’t her choice to make, anyways, although Kane knew that had it been her decision, the problem would be fixed already.

Kane perked up a bit more than she would have liked to when Paszek emerged from the other room. The latter simply nodded his head and walked towards the exit, with Kane following close behind.

* * *

 

Kane used the ride over to fill Paszek in on what Teele had told her. He paid his normal amount of attention to the details, but could not really force himself to care too much about it. His thoughts were already on DC; how to extract Hall’s body. He knew there was nothing he could say to convince Kane that he wasn’t going insane; he had accepted that. Bringing back Hall would, in theory, put them back on Relationship Cloud Nine, or wherever it was they were before.

Of course, that was the mindset he tried to put himself in. The positive and forward-thinking one. But positive was never first nature, or second, for that matter, to Paszek. The truth was that what Kane had said to him hurt. It really, really hurt. The fact that something called him crazy would normally make him slightly angry. But hearing it from Kane? That just spelled disappointment for Paszek. Disappointment in her? In himself? He wasn’t sure. It always hurt to be on the right side of the wrong argument with someone you love.

Shit. That wasn’t it either. He had gone from the future mindset to the past, but they were both the wrong fit. He needed the present. Yeah. The present. Savior. Bombs. Coalescence. Chaos. Free Will. New World Order. Whatever the fuck it was that Savior was fighting for, anyways. Okay. This was better. Stop the bombs. Find Savior. Interrogate. Maybe do what he did with Salim.

Paszek turned his head, just to alleviate anyone’s fears that he staring off into space. No one had any. He knew that. But he always did it anyways. He noticed Kane typing away on her tablet.

And that was it. He was gone. Out of it. People say you don’t appreciate what you have until it’s gone. But she wasn’t. Kane wasn’t gone. She was still within an arm’s length. But Paszek still felt that sting. It was one of those few moments he had experienced where he actually sat in shock at her beauty. And not that internal beauty she always carried around with her. It was right here, it was in Singapore, and it was their first night in DC. Those times where the times when he realized the purely superficial presence she had, her other qualities notwithstanding. How her cheekbones had the perfect curvature to accentuate her glowing skin, but not sharp enough to disrupt it. How her jaw seemed to dip down a bit as she smiled. How her lips were so subtly kind and persuasive. God, it wasn’t just her face. Her whole body was a piece of art. He forgot about everything she had done for him. All the words and the actions and the time. He didn’t care about any of that. Not for that moment. He just looked in awe at her, the person, the figure, and knew that was something he wanted. Desired. Needed. He was getting flustered looking at a woman who was eighty percent clothed.

Paszek jerked his head back over into the blank space. This was wrong. It was more wrong than any of the other mindsets. This was the selfish one. The one that would force the worst kinds of decisions. The one that he wished he could get away from while actively enjoying it.

“Did you get that?”

Paszek quickly jerked back around.

“What?! Oh…uh, no, I, uh, wasn’t…I was, uh, zoning out…yeah.”

“Jamie Curran is on sight. He just called me. They’ve already disarmed one of the bombs.”

“Okay…wait, do we know him?”

“Curran?”

“Yeah. Have we…met before?”

“Might have seen his name in some documents…”

“I…yeah, you’re right. I think that’s it.”

He spoke again.

“But I haven’t talked to him, like, in person?”

“Why are you so concerned with this?”

“Forget it. It’s nothing.”

“Is this…”

“Is this what?”

“Is this something he’s telling you to do?”

“He?”

Paszek quickly answered his own question.

“No! This isn’t Corvus, he…he can’t even talk to me unless I’m knocked out.”

“Well, _that_ sure makes me feel better…”

“Sorry.”

“Just…”

Kane paused.

“…let’s leave this alone for a moment, alright?”

She went back to her tablet as Paszek turned to once again face the dead space.

And so the mind comes full circle.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Savior's bomb threat looming, Kane and Paszek work with the CIA to defuse the situation.

Paszek had already begun to grow tired of the Atlanta Coalescence building. He had been there three times in the last six months, not to mention twice in as many days.  And each time seemed to be worse than the last.

The place was usually pretty quiet, inside and out, but with the bomb threat looming, it was quite the opposite. Officers and agents in varying amounts of armor stood outside every side of the building, pointing details out and talking through their communicators. Further away, about two dozen people in lab coats, and a few other employees, stood behind a steel barrier guarded by another officer.

Paszek and Kane quickly exited their van after it stopped at the edge of the parking lot, and the driver took a few moments later.

A somewhat-darkly skinned man wearing a suit jacket with a black Kevlar vest overtop pressed a button on his earpiece and started walking towards the pair.

“Captain Paszek, Officer Kane, glad you’re here.”

“And you are?” spoke Paszek.

“Jamie Curran. Assistant to the Director. You spoke with the Director earlier, Officer?”

“Yes. I heard you already disarmed one of the bombs.”

“Well, actually, that’s old news. We got all four of them now.”

“Just like that?” said Paszek.

Curran lightly chuckled. “It’s amazing what our scanners can do these days. Bomb squad found all four within ten minutes, and had all of the connections severed in another ten. He’s using the same thermite explosives everyone else is these days. Simple stuff, really.”

“Well, uh…alright then. So, what do you need us for?”

“You two know more about this masked man than the rest of us. I need you to look around, ask around…do whatever it is you can do to figure out, well, _anything_ about him. Who he is, where he is, what he’ll do next…”

“Is there any kind of timetable?” asked Kane.

“Yes and no. Until he makes another public statement, there’s no way of knowing when he’ll do something like this again. But we want to know sooner rather than later.”

He pulled a small phone out of his pocket.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me…”

Curran started talking to whoever the hell was on the other end of the line and walked away.

Kane looked towards the CIA-flanked building.

“I’m heading inside. Going to take a look at these bombs. You do whatever you want.”

Her not-quite-passive aggressive tone was not lost on Paszek. He sighed to himself.

With Kane now walking closer to the Coalescence building, Paszek’s eyes were caught by the crowd – the large crowd of lab coats and jumpsuits that were corralled behind the steel barricades. Were those the employees? Maybe Dr. Berg could clear something up.

* * *

 

“Were all of these people in the building at the time of the evacuation?”

The sunglasses-clad agent shook his head.

“Nope. Some of them…mostly the docs, got here just after. Must have been on their way.”

“Can I talk to them?”

“Depends.”

Paszek paused. “…on what?”

The agent didn’t hesitate at all. “How high’s your clearance?”

Without saying anything, Paszek pulled out the ID badge that Teele had given him on his first day back.

**PASZEK, IGNACIO**

**CAPTAIN**

**SECURITY LEVEL 7**

The agent quickly nodded and moved to the side to let Paszek into the mob of employees.

They seemed to be clumped in groups, to an extent; the lab coats all mostly stayed in one corner, a few patients were near them…some others wearing average business attire, secretaries and assistants, Paszek presumed, stood towards the middle of the crowd. Near the opposite corner were the jumpsuits, probably cleaners and maintenance workers.

Paszek decided he’d work from the top down. Being the first person he could actually recognize, he approached Dr. Berg first.

“…Well, I have to say, I didn’t think I’d be seeing you again so soon, Captain…” Berg wasn’t as much genuinely relieved as he was modestly thankful for Paszek’s presence.

“I don’t have a lot of time. Where were you when the CIA evacuated the building?”

“About 15 miles down the road. What’s th-”

“So you came to work even after hearing about the threat?”

“Threat?! Is that why they evacuated us?”

“Bomb threat. We have reason to-”

“How could this poss-”

“I said I don’t have lots of time.”

That seemed to shut Berg up.

“Would any of the other doctors be here this early in the morning?”

Berg nodded his head. “Yes…yes…Dr. Montenegro and Dr. Salim both had appointments starting at 6:30.”

Paszek froze.

“Salim?”

Berg arched an eyebrow.

“You have a man working here named Dr. _Salim_?”

“Er…yes? Why does-”

This was wrong. This was very wrong. Everything about this was wrong. How the hell could the CIA go have make that awful of an oversight? Paszek hurriedly turned around and walked a few feet towards the more condensed crowd of doctors. He lightly shoved a few other who were in his way to make haste there.

“ _…you…can…h…this…don’t…don’t…it’s not…the…ss-_ ”

Fucking Corvus. Fucking DNI triggers. Maybe he was trying to say something useful. Maybe. But all that was coming out was jumbled syllables and static. It was like trying to listen to a radio station three states over.

Wait just a second. Paszek had done it again. He. Him His. This was _Corvus_ he was thinking about. _Corvus._ An artificial intelligence. A computer glitch. A very, very long series of 1’s and 0’s, for God’s sake! Why was he treating it like a person? Why did Hall insist on it? Why was it feeling more and more natural to do it? Was he infecting his mind once again? Was Hall imprinting on him? Too many questions to even attempt to articulate, much less answer.

Wrong mindset. Wrong mindset.

Salim. Salim. Salim? Who the fuck was this guy? He kept pushing.

Two doctors, one male and one female, talked to each other alone in a corner. Paszek made eye contact.

“Are either of you Dr. Salim?” he asked, using his trademark gruff voice.

The tall, Arabic-looking man answered. “Yes, that is me…is something wrong?”

Paszek quickly flashed his ID badge before grabbing the man’s forearm and dragging him a few steps away.

“I’m with the CIA. I’m going to have to ask a few questions.”

The doctor raised an eyebrow. “Why is that?”

“What is your full name?”

“Hiram Salim.”

Paszek did not slow the pace of his questioning. “How long have you lived in the United States?”

“The last 17 years.”

“And before that?”

“Pardon?”

“Where did you live, before the US?”

“Egypt, North of Cairo.”

“Wait right here.”

Paszek walked away from a dumbfounded Salim and back to the guard in front of the crowd.

“You see that Arab doctor right there?” Paszek pointed to Salim, who stood craning his head, dumbfounded.

The guard nodded.

“He’s a prime suspect. Have him booked. I’m going to go talk to some more people.”

As Paszek started to wade back into the crowd, the guard placed a hand on the front of his shoulder.

“You’re so sure he’s in on it after talking to him for 30 seconds?”

Paszek did not give a response and continued to move through the crowd.

* * *

 

One of the agents at the front door had given Kane a bulletproof vest to wear. A precaution, they called it.

Kane was familiar enough with bomb scenarios. She liked to call those kinds of things “pro-cautions.” As in, _pro_ -longing the amount of time you’d stay alive. Now, she did appreciate the vest; why wouldn’t she? But it seemed more an act of courtesy or policy than one of actual concern.

She knew she was expendable. Even someone as intelligent as Kane could be easily replaced. Hell, the CIA was planning on transferring her to budget analysis duty. That was how insignificant she was. So, in a way, this whole ordeal with Savior had a way of elevating her status within the organization. They had specifically called for her, and Paszek, understandably, to perform the primary investigation. For however long this thing took, no longer than a week, she hoped, she _wouldn’t_ be expendable. And that advantage, she inferred, could perhaps allow her certain…privileges...maybe more database access? She practically knew nothing about Teele, and that was to say nothing of this Curran guy, who seemed to have pull with him too. Maybe she was being overly-optimistic.

The other relevant thing Kane knew at the time was that something was greatly amiss regarding this bomb plot.

Savior could orchestrate the abduction and murder of a high-ranking ZSF general, either break in to an NRC prison, _or_ find a way to get some leverage with them, enough so that he could execute their prisoners at his own will. But he couldn’t plant some bombs without them being caught in a half hour? That was absurd.

Walking through the first floor of the Coalescence building, what most immediately caught her eye was how absolutely nothing caught her eye. The floor was pristine. The glass unfettered. The doors in perfect working order. The complex was exactly the way you would expect it to look after 15 minutes of work. No forced entry, and no alarms tripped.

Again, either Savior had managed to break into this facility spotlessly, or he acquired the means to get in without having to. The first wasn’t impossible…she had seen weirder. But it certainly was highly improbable, to say the least.

The second possibility, however, was of more interest to her. The idea that he had somehow gained access to the building without physical force. It certainly seemed to complement the fact that he never showed his face. She had always assumed that he was just a nobody – someone from some micro-nation with no relevance. But what if it was just the opposite? What if he was someone far more important? Important enough to not have to _gain_ access, but to have it _given_ to him?

Kane’s thoughts were interrupted.

“This is where we found the first device.”

She looked up from the floor she had been staring at for the latter half of her walk through the building and saw another vest-clad agent with her head turned towards the object in question.

 As far as bombs went, it looked pretty standard. Two thick, chrome cylinders, both held in place by cubical frame and a flurry of multi-colored wires. Suspiciously missing, though, is a timer or detonator.

“You said you’ve disarmed them?”

“Yes, ma’am, that’s correct.”

“Cut it open.”

“The bomb casing, ma’am?”

“Yeah. The casing. Get it cut open.”

The younger woman arched an eyebrow. “Alright…fine, let me call someone in.”

* * *

 

Hiram Salim was in the back of a CIA van about two minutes after Paszek gave the order. Paszek had spent some more time talking to the other doctors, but none of them seemed to know anything of interest.

What was interesting, though, was that one Alicia Montenegro was not present at the time of the evacuation, as Berg had suggested. As it turned out, her patient had called to cancel his appointment, so she showed up at her normal time 7:15, as opposed to sometime before 6:30, like Paszek had previously believed. And it wasn’t just her word to go off – multiple employees from multiple sectors could back it up.

This piece of information’s relevance was compounded by the fact that Salim, who was treating the same patient, _did_ show up around 6 in the morning, making him the first and only doctor in the building.

None of the interns were of concern. They hadn’t gotten there yet. Not before Salim. Same went for the nurses.

The only other people inside the building besides the lone doctor were a total of 4 custodians. Paszek had them brought in, too.

5 suspects. There was no way to know for sure if it was just one guilty one. Or even two. Or if any of them were guilty at all. More importantly…were any of these people Savior? Or were they just working with him? With the figure touting his personal connection to Paszek, his immediate assumption was to agree with the second possibility, but it was always difficult to tell just sincere Savior was being. Hell, implying that he had any sincerity in the first place. Savior said that the bombs would be set off late in the day…would that mean that there was a timer? Or that someone could detonate the bomb remotely?

Paszek supposed that it probably didn’t matter, at least not if Curran was correct in that all four bombs had already been deactivated, or that Savior had even told the truth in saying that only four bombs had been planted. Savior had given Paszek the answer but hadn’t told him the question. Or maybe it was the other way around.

Regardless, there were five people to do background checks on, and five people to interrogate.

* * *

 

_Witness Incident Report: Coalescence Atlanta Branch Incident: Atlanta, GA, January 6 th, 2071: Chief Intelligence Officer Caitlin Hernandez_

_Pablo Orjuela had worked maintenance in the Coalescence building for just over 7 years. He rarely missed work. An average year would see him take about half of his normal vacation days. He has long been divorced, and has three children, all in their twenties._

_Mr. Orjuela would not be considered an ideal candidate to be a terrorist. Captain Ignacio Paszek and Assistant to the Director Jamie Curran, who both interviewed Mr. Orjuela separately, jointly believe that Mr. Orjuela has no connection to the incident._

_Madison Kent had worked maintenance in the Coalescence building for 13 months. He never enjoyed his job, or speaking to anyone when he didn’t have to, but he performed well enough to be promoted – twice. He and his boyfriend, who works as a software engineer, lived in a modest apartment downtown. He had been arrested once previously – a disorderly conduct charge stemming from a climate change protest in Jacksonville._

_Mr. Kent would not be considered an ideal candidate to be a terrorist. Captain Ignacio Paszek and Assistant to the Director Jamie Curran, who both interviewed Mr. Kent separately, jointly believe that Mr. Kent has no connection to the incident._

_Alice Rubio, better known to her friends as “Al”, had worked maintenance in the Coalescence building since it’s construction in 2058. A citizen of both the United States and Guatemala, she used her brother’s position in a heroin smuggling sting to gain amnesty. She has had no incidents with law enforcement, and is noted as being very well-liked by everyone in the workplace._

_Miss Rubio would not be considered an ideal candidate to be a terrorist. Captain Ignacio Paszek and Assistant to the Director Jamie Curran, who both interviewed Miss Rubio separately, jointly believe that Miss Rubio has no connection to the incident._

* * *

 

“When was the last time you saw Yousef Salim?”

“Online, just a few months ago, in those NRC propaganda videos. Does that count?”

A particularly stern glare from Paszek.

Hiram exhaled. “6, maybe 7 years ago. During the interview process for Coalescence. He came over from Zurich to put in his word for me.”

“Do you think you would have still gotten this job, if it weren’t for him?”

“Who’s to say?” He shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t think they would have hired me if I didn’t have the qualifications. That much I know.”

“Think you would have gotten the accelerated citizenship? The CIA clearance?”

“I’m not stupid. I know that my uncle is a powerful man. And that declares my innocence right there – why would I threaten a company that he and I play such an integral role in?”

“Yousef is dead. After the Egyptian Army recovered him, he was killed in a raid by the NRC, just outside of Cairo.”

Hiram wiped his brow with his hand.

“Wow…well…I guess it was going to happen sooner or later.”

“You don’t seem too sad about that.”

“You do not tell me how to grieve!”

He paused.

“Besides…with what little news was coming out of the region, we had expected the worst. At the very least, his suffering is over, I suppose.”

“Do you know why he was captured by the NRC?”

He glanced off to the side. “No. We figured he just got caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Paszek squinted. “Are you familiar with the 54 Immortals?”

“Those savages? Wha-What are you trying to say?”

“They have plenty of reason to hate Coalescence, and your uncle. Have you been in contact with anyone?”

“No! I still don’t even know what it is exactly that you are accusing me of, but I will not stand for this! I have done nothing wrong!”

Paszek shook his head and walked out. Hiram was acting exactly like every other civilian he’d ever interrogated – too confused to extract anything out of. That being said, he seemed to be telling the truth, and also seemed to know very little about the details of Salim’s research…something he’d be better off not knowing.

Curran was waiting for him. He had been listening in the whole conversation behind the one-way glass – standard fare for interrogations.

“That’s it?”

“I doubt I can get much more from him. Do whatever you want with him.”

“I have my work cut out for me. That DNI make your people skills rusty, too?”

Paszek realized that Kane was right about one thing; they had definitely never met Curran before. He would’ve remembered if he was this much of an asshole.

It wasn’t just that off-color comment, either. Curran was ruthless in his interrogations. And not in a violent way, like Hendricks was. He was the kind of ruthless that men in suits were – passive aggressive and conniving. He would threaten you with every kind of pain there was, outside of physical pain of course. Deportation, auditing, foreign arrest warrants…nothing was off the table for him to blackmail with. Reprehensible? Sure. Effective? Sadly.

Paszek rolled his eyes and walked over to the other end of the trailer. The other interrogation room on the opposite side housed one Stephen Johnson.

The fact that Curran had spent as little time with Johnson as Paszek had with Hiram meant something – namely that Curran was too lazy to actually read what information they had on Johnson.

There were thousands of people in the US with the name Stephen Johnson. The person in that room, however, was certainly not one of them. There were records, sure, but they were laughably sparse. A birth certificate, a driver’s license, and tax papers from the last two years was just about all the CIA had on file from him, despite the fact that he worked at a CIA-operated facility. Maybe that’s how he passed their background checks so easily, there was nothing shady to spot because there _was nothing_.

If Curran had danced around the issue in his chat with Mr. Johnson, or whatever his name really was, then Paszek would be sure to face it head on.

* * *

 

The two technicians had quite easily removed the two cylinders from the casing, although Kane could tell they were clearly uneasy about the process of doing so.

Winslow, the agent accompanying Kane, was equally nervous about the situation.

“I mean…you explained it pretty well, but…what exactly are you expecting to learn here?”

“Hopefully, something we don’t know already.”

Winslow exhaled. Kane could tell she was a bit frustrated, but she seemed to have at least a marginal amount of faith in what she was doing. Or at least, more so than the two technicians.

“Can you slice open the casing, right at the top?”

The technician on her left scrunched his face.

“Lady, that’s insane. There’s potentially active thermite in there!”

“And your tools are sensitive enough to handle explosive casings, _mister_.”

“You so sure? Do it yourself!”

Dropping his bag of tools, the outspoken asset left in a huff, with his partner following quickly, but reluctantly.

“Oh, uh…I’m sorry about them…I’ll make sure that they get what’s coming to them.”

Kane didn’t hesitate in moving forward to examine the tools the men had left behind.

“Hernandez should be able to do that just fine. I’m going to need your help here with this.”

“I’m not equipped to handle bombs like this, officer.”

“Well, you’re going to have to be.”

Winslow walked and crouched down next to Kane, who handed her a wrench and a small device that resembled a laser pointer.

Kane grabbed one of the two cylinders with and placed in in front of herself, and Winslow followed suit with the other.

“Unscrew the three bits at the top first. Once you do that…” Kane finished taking off the screws. “You should be able to remove the top.”

Winslow took a little longer to complete the same task but did it nonetheless.

Now with three industrial-sized screws and a thin sheet of the metal on the floor, Kane picked up the other tool – Winslow placed her wrench down and examined the same device.

“Here, I’m going to do this first. Just watch.”

Kane tapped a few times on the device’s screen, entering a handful of codes and measurements before turning a small dial that stuck slightly out to the side. She placed the head of the pointer on the now-exposed cylinder, took a deep breath, and pressed the red button on top.

The short but potent burst of light caused both women to flinch just a bit. Kane placed the tool on the ground again and examined the results – slowly peeling off the now-frayed metal.

Her eyes widened.

“What is it?”

“It’s…there’s nothing in here. There’s just…filler. Cardboard…plastic…foam…no shrapnel…not even any…wait a second.”

Kane looked at the inner side of the peeled-off casing. It had a subtle orange hue. She wiped her index finger against the edge of it and brought it up to her nose.

“Thermite…but…not much. This explosion wouldn’t go further than a few feet…maybe a yard…”

“There’s still three bombs to look at. Maybe they’re different?” asked Winslow. She shook her head not long after uttering the sentence.

“Hold on a minute.”

* * *

 

“Look, man, I don’t think you really get it.”

Stephen Johnson, or whatever his name really was, was frustrating to deal with.

“You have a birth certificate, but the hospital listed can’t verify it. You apparently got your driver’s license just three years ago. And your tax papers? My associate says that they don’t even begin to line up with the current codes.”

Stephen wiped his brow and placed his hands down on the table.

“Okay? I’m sorry about that, I guess.”

“What’s your real name?”

“Stephen Johnson _is_ my real name. Check the records. It’s all there. What do you want from me? You want ID? Fingerprints?”

Paszek mentally cursed. He had checked the fingerprints. They were all in order. But it still seemed wrong.

“The federal government takes tax fraud pretty seriously. But it’s not as bad as domestic terrorism.”

Paszek paused.

“Who helped you do this?”

“Do what? I’ve done nothing.”

“We know that you planted those bombs in the building!”

“Bombs?! Those…there are bombs in there?!”

“Don’t play stupid! No one else had access-”

“Yes! They did! Al and Madison and Mr. O! Even Dr. Salim!”

“And we cleared them. They had alibis. You don’t.”

Stephen took a few deep breaths and wiped his brow once more. Paszek took a step closer.

“Okay…okay, but you still…you still don’t get it. I didn’t want this to happen. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.”

“What are you saying?”

“I didn’t know they were bombs! I didn’t know!”

“So you did put them in the building?”

“Yeah! Yeah! I did! But I didn’t know what they were. He just told me to-”

“He?! Who’s _he_?!”

“The guy with the voice! On the TV! I don’t know him. But he made me…he made me do this.”

“What’s his name? Who is he?!”

“I already told you, I don’t know! I didn’t know he wanted me to plant bombs! I swear!”

Paszek turned around and walked back towards the wall, clutching his forehead.

“Is…is everyone going to be alright?” Stephen asked, sheepishly.

A message on his interface.

“ _Stop ignoring me. Urgent._ ”

Paszek exhaled. He had shut off his voice calls from everyone, including Kane, just before starting the interrogations. He didn’t want any distractions. And, unfortunately, both the presence and mere thought of Kane had turned into just that for him. He reluctantly activated a vocal call.

“What is it? I’ve got some-”

“They’re not bombs, Paszek!”

“You…what?”

“The four things, we thought they were bombs – they’re not.”

“Okay…so…what…what does that mean? Are there, just, no bombs?”

“Savior said he planted four bombs. These aren’t bombs. So, if we go by his word…”

“There’s still bombs out there somewhere. Just…not here?”

“That’s the worst-case scenario, yeah.”

“Okay…okay…”

A beat of silence.

“You picked a good time to call…I just got something from our last suspect here…one of the janitors. He says he planted the devices, and that he was told that they weren’t bombs.”

“Did he say why?”

“Working to figure that out. Make sure the CIA sweeps the rest of the building.”

“Already done. I’ll meet you down-”

Disconnect. Every second was precious. He knew Kane would be mad at him for it. Whatever. He didn’t need to think about that anyways. Paszek turned back towards Stephen.

“This man, he contacted you, right? How?”

“How hasn’t he? Phone, computer…even showed at up at my house before...but there are bombs in there?!”

“Focus! So, he’s threatening you?”

“Yes! What did you think?! I’m not a terrorist! I do what he says, he lets me live, here! That’s what the deal was!”

“What else has he asked you to do?”

“Nothing! I swear! I haven’t done anything else!”

“ _CALL ME NOW_.” Damnit.

“What is it now?!” Paszek raised his voice.

“Well…” Kane reeled back. “Winslow’s been in touch with every corner of the place. No bombs. They’re not here.”

“Winslow? Who’s-”

“Another agent. Focus here. Does the suspect know where other bombs might be?”

“Doesn’t look like it. He seems out of his element. I’ll keep digging, though.”

“Wait a second!”

They both paused.

“Okay, don’t leave just yet. Remember that Savior said he was targeting government buildings and Coalescence. Maybe mention that in your…discussion with this guy.”

“Will do.”

“Just-”

* * *

 

Kane was dangerously close to taking the monitor out of her ear and throwing it to the floor. Had she not been in the company of anyone else, she just might have. She wasn’t dense – she knew that Paszek knew that she hated it when he hung up like that.

It was a matter of principle – it had seemed to her lately that Paszek wasn’t aware of just how much Kane worried for him. That he didn’t understand that just because she needed to put their relationship on standby…it didn’t mean that she stopped caring. It was the opposite. She cared even more – enough to know that all this stress…Savior, the cryo-weapon, Corvus…it wasn’t the kind of situation that made for a healthy, mutual relationship.

Not that it mattered at the moment, anyways. Kane knew he had already crossed over to the cold side of him. He was all business now.

Maybe it was better if she had, too.

“Where else does the CIA operate in Atlanta?”

Winslow aimed her eyes upwards. “Our local HQ. But I don’t think that’s it…we were already on lockdown this morning. No bombs…and no fake bombs, either.”

“Nowhere else in this whole city?”

“Well, of course we have agents in place.” She paused. “But that’s covert stuff. No one could find out about that.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure. We don’t know just how much this guy is capable of.”

“If he wanted to take out one of your agents, why would he place bombs to do it?”

Kane squinted. Winslow had a point. What other leads did they have to go on?

“Where’s the nearest Coalescence building, ‘sides this one?” asked Winslow.

“Too far. Either Little Rock or Houston. Not close enough to be targets.”

“So….” Winslow trailed off. “Where…what…what are we supposed to do now?”

This was not Kane’s specialty. She was well aware. Getting inside the head of Savior wasn’t something she was well equipped to do.

Lightbulb. She didn’t even have to do that. She just needed to analyze the data they already had.

Four bombs. People at danger…news broadcast transcript...

“ _Labcoats, law enforcement officers, and government agents…_ ”

Coalescence research labs? Accounted for. Police stations? No word from them. Too small-scale for this guy. CIA ops? Winslow had stamped those flames out.

How far was too far to look? Savior didn’t give out any coordinates. The only reference point was the TV broadcast range…which she had no way of knowing if he had even taken into account at all…

Maybe she could…

Would that be okay for her to?

In a situation like this…

She swiped over on her tablet to Paszek’s profile. She still had access to his direct communications. The audio was there from last night…would she be doing something wrong here? Paszek had given her the short-form of the conversation that morning…allegedly.

Well, this would hardly the worst thing she’d done up until this point.

* * *

 

“I don’t know, okay! He might ask me to do something again, might not. Probably not, now that I’ve talked to you…”

“There are more bombs out there. Do you know where they could have been planted?”

Stephen shook his head. “C’mon, haven’t I…haven’t I made this clear enough? I don’t know shit. I was told to plant the bombs, or I’m dead. That’s it.”

“Is anyone else at Coalescence working for this man?”

“Not that I know of. I feel like he would tell me if they were, right?”

Paszek bit his lip. Stephen had a point.

From what knowledge he had gathered, and from what he had been assigned with the DNI, Paszek was fairly certain that this man was telling the truth. His responses might have raised more questions than answers, but he could at least hold a modest amount of trust in them.

Of course, that was implying that everything he knew about interrogation was accurate...that Coalescence and the CIA had fed him the right info. Who’s to say that they didn’t have a way of changing it? Would they be okay with him using this knowledge to interrogate one their own, even if he was just a janitor?

He glanced at the cryo-weapon. It was just sitting there. He had just used it the one time. Maybe Stephen wasn’t telling the truth. Maybe he should test that out. Maybe…

Stop it. Stop it. No. No. No. No. Fuck. How…how did that just cross his mind? Was he about to freeze a man’s fingers off because he _thought_ he _might_ be lying, _sort of kind of maybe, a little bit_? Dial it back.

Well, actually…he wasn’t exactly a saint. He did plant things that he thought were bombs, and that would undoubtedly have killed some people. He didn’t even try to contact the authorities. And it clearly had been going on for a while. Could one be content with blackmail like that?

He been threatened with death over the phone…but what did that mean? Anyone could do that. Has he had to deal with it up close? Has he felt that real and visceral pain involved with it? Maybe if he knew what it was really like…

No! Fuck no! This was not right. This was not the right shit to be thinking. This was not the right shit to be _doing_.

He went for the door, leaving Stephen alone in the room. Curran was waiting outside.

“Get anything out of Salim?”

“About the bombs? Nope. I did make him admit to cheating with his secretary, though.”

Paszek shook his head. He really was an asshole.

“You want another round with the janitor?”

“Couldn’t hurt. Hopefully we can dig deep into how this guy picked him to do his dirty work…and why.”

Paszek nodded and left the room just as Curran entered the interrogation area. He quickly walked through the remaining half of the van and exited it from the center.

* * *

 

Kane was waiting from him about ten feet from the exit, arms crossed.

“You knew about the bombs yesterday?!”

“What?”

“Savior told you about the bombs last night, and you didn’t think that was important to tell me, or anyone else?”

Paszek exhaled. “I…there was…”

“What reason could you possibly have to keep this from me?!”

“We had just argued, and you were already asleep, and…”

“And that matters when lives are at risk?! We can’t afford to lose-”

“Alright, I get it!” Paszek huffed. “It was stupid! I was stupid! Can we move on, now?”

“We-” she paused. “Sure. Fine.”

Paszek awkwardly looked to the side.

“Does the suspect know where the bombs are planted?”

“No.” replied Paszek. “He says that Savior blackmailed him into planting the bombs. That’s all I could get.”

“You think he’s hiding something?”

“Maybe. But I’ve done what I can. If Curran can’t get it out of him, I doubt anyone else here could.”

“There are some more government buildings around. Agents are down at the DEA branch, the Georgian embassy…even the post offices. Not taking any chances.”

“Good. That covers _almost_ everything he mentioned, except…”

“Coalescence, yeah.” said Kane.

“Would he try targeting former employees? Ones on their day off? Applicants?” Kane could tell that Paszek was as desperate as she was.

“No. Not today, at least. He wouldn’t hijack a news station just for that. Did you try calling him again?”

“Yeah. Didn’t answer.”

 “Okay…try putting yourself in his shoes, Paszek. You’re an anarchist. You hate Coalescence. You hate the government. You want to blow something up that will piss off the latter two while simultaneously enforcing your ideology. You want the streets to run wild. Where do plant the bomb? What will happen because of it?”

“Statues? Historical sites? A bridge?”

No. He’s wrong. Kane knew it had to go deeper than that. That was the wrong kind of significance.

“ _You know deep down that chaos rules. These blots on society…these plagues…they will consume you before you can control them._ ”

That’s what the transcript said. That’s what Savior had said on the broadcast.

“ _…these plagues…_ ”

Why? Why did that stick out to her? It was bargain-bin terrorist lingo. Nothing of relevance. Right?

“ _…they will consume you before you can control them_.”

What did this mean? What was it, exactly, that would consume them? Vices? The climate? The war? None of them would be affected by a bomb.

What could you blow up near Atlanta, Georgia that would consume the people in plague?

Plague. Disease?

 _Disease_.

“The CDC! They…their HQ is somewhere around here, right?”

“Yes…yeah, that’s right.” said Paszek. “Decatur, I think. And I’d be willing to bet-”

“That Coalescence has some kind of residency there? Me too.”

“So, that’s the place, then?”

“It makes too much sense for it not to be.”

* * *

 

Within a few minutes, Kane had spoken to Winslow and relayed the information, while Paszek had spoken with Dr. Berg once more to confirm their presence at the CDC. Within a half hour, all of them, plus Curran and a dozen other agents, were on site at the CDC headquarters. An evacuation order was placed on the building and the university campus it was a part of, but the process was not as swift as it was back at Coalescence. There were far more people. Far more targets.

It had taken a larger portion of her concentration than Kane would have cared to admit to stop her from thinking about Paszek’s condition. It was also beginning to seem like a more pressing issue, not just for her and Paszek, but for everyone else as well. The CIA clearly put a lot of faith in Paszek in asking him to cover all of these important assignments, and if his mental state was stopping him from succeeding, then there would be far more to lose than one person’s sanity.

Kane pondered that perhaps this was the reason that Paszek changed mental gears so fast. Maybe not the reason…more like the motivation. Being clouded with these personal sorts of thoughts was a frustrating situation no matter how it went down. Either you became flustered and angry, or jarred by the snap back into reality. Or both. Lose-lose.

She felt that this particular instance had fallen somewhere in-between those two outcomes.

* * *

 

The sheer volume of circumstantial stress that was resting on Paszek, at the very least, served to somewhat dampen the constant flow of thoughts containing the words: “ _you_ ”, “ _are_ ”, “ _fucking_ ”, and “ _stupid_ ”, usually but not exclusively in that order. Of course, this ride still wasn’t much easier. Kane still occupied far too much space in his conscious, as did one other person and one…whatever the fuck he thought it was appropriate to call Corvus.

It’s not like any of that was of particular importance. Depending on whether or not they were correct, the next hour and a half would determine the fates of anywhere from a few dozen to hundreds of thousands of people.

How did this keep happening? How was it that the world’s greatest threats kept throwing themselves into his line of fire? Cities weren’t being toppled anywhere else in the world. Cairo falls…Zurich devastated…and Decatur wiped out by plague…and how? All it took was a handful of ordinary people with DNIs. Why did everyone trust him? What reason did they have? Paszek was just man who happened to be the wrong person in the wrong place with the wrong mind too many fucking times. Sure, he had more-or-less figured things out after a while, but…just…why? He wasn’t the only soldier with a DNI not to go insane. Because had absolutely gone insane, by any standard metric. Did anybody even care about that? Where they so blinded by his combat efficiency that they couldn’t see the obvious cracks in his mental stability? If he didn’t feel so shady about the CIA, he might have just gone out and asked to be released.

He supposed it wouldn’t matter too much if he fucked up and died in the next half hour.

* * *

 

“Captain…Officer…I’m going to send each of you with one of our teams. They are four total. If one of them needs either of you, they’ll communicate with you and you’ll move to their position to help.”

Curran hardly waited a few seconds after giving his orders to turn around and high-tail it back to his transport vehicle, which sped off not long after.

He was running away.

Kane checked the time. It was 4:58. 32 minutes until the bombs detonated, according to Savior’s broadcast. Groups of approximately 6 bomb squad members stood at each entrance, and, seemingly received some kind of communication, all entered the CDC building in similar fashion.

So much for going in with the team.

Maybe Curran was an idiot and told them the wrong orders, or maybe he was a jerk and changed the orders without telling him, but it didn’t particularly matter at the moment because of…well, the imminent explosion of unknown size.

Kane turned to face Winslow, who, by the looks of it, was not confident in the success of this mission.

“Hey, you alright?”

She shook her head.

“Look, whoever is in charge of ground comms here…I want you to find them and take over for them. I want you in front of the screen showing the remote scans, and I want you relaying that to Paszek and I. If someone objects, say the order came from Teele.”

“But…what if they-”

“We’ll worry about that later. Just get it done.”

“I…I don’t think that I can…with all of this-”

“It’s-” Kane paused, realizing her voice was a bit harsher than she had intended.

“These guys have been screwing things up all day. You haven’t. Okay? You’ve done good today. Just keep it up for a little while longer. That’s all. I just need a half hour more of that from you. Okay?”

Winslow opened her mouth to speak, but opted not to, nodding and quickly jogging off in the opposite direction.

Kane caught the last microsecond of Paszek’s eagle eye as she turned back around to face him. He shook his head before she could wonder about it further.

“Your tac-vision can see thermite, right?”

“Yeah. Let me do a quick spot-check.” He tapped a forefinger to his head and panned around for a moment.

“I mean, I can’t see the whole building…not even close. But there’s none here. At least, not enough to register.”

Kane turned back around, away from the building, and initiated communications.

“…yes, yes, sir, I understand…but Director Teele assigned me to assist Officer Kane. If she’s inside there…well…then I need to keep track of her.”

A beat.

“Yes, sir. Of course, sir. I’m fully aware.”

“You good over there?”

“Oh!” it sounded like she may have jumped a little. “Yeah. Scanners are up and running. Won’t be long before I have a reading.”

“Keep me posted.”

“Squad C is heading up the stairs to the fourth floor as we speak. Once they-”

That was the worst sound they could’ve heard at that particular moment.

“There…was that…I…”

Winslow couldn’t finish.

“Are they alright?”

Kane interpreted Winslow’s radio silence as the answer she feared most.

“T-th-three…”

“Three…three? Three what?”

“Three of them were out of the blast range. One has bad vitals…oh…no… _really_ bad vitals. I think he’s…oh God. I don’t….oh my God…”

Kane pressed a hand to her forehead.

“What happened in there? Why didn’t we see that coming?”

“I-I don’t know! The scans…the scans showed nothing there! If there was some kind of explosive…it should’ve seen it…I don’t get it…I…”

“Tell everyone to stay put! I’ll be over-”

The stamping of Paszek’s boots was barely audible in Kane’s peripheral hearing.

* * *

 

“All units remain still! There are unidentified explosive devices in the vicinity!” Paszek shouted as he ran towards the west entrance to the complex.

“No shit! That took out half of the wall behind us!” came from Squad B

“I’ve got one wounded! He needs extraction!” came from the remnants of Squad C.

“Retrace your steps, Charlie. I’ll meet you halfway.”

Paszek checked the time as he raced through the corridors. 5 o’clock sharp. What was Savior doing? Setting off bombs a whole half hour before he promised to? Or maybe this was a proximity explosive? He claimed he set 4 bombs…did this one even count? Was this whole thing just a trap?

Fuck it. It didn’t matter now. The vest-clad sole survivor of Squad C was dragging his wincing partner down the hallway.

“He’s got shrapnel all up in his legs, man! Still conscious, though…I don’t how long he’s got.”

“What about the others?”

The stare from the soldier penetrated far through his thick black mask and straight into Paszek.

“Don’t even look! Don’t even fucking look in there, man! You don’t want to see that. Don’t wanna see that at all. I just…fuck, I-”

Paszek exhaled. “I have a medic on standby, will he be able to make it outside?”

He nervously nodded, and Paszek angled himself to the side to allow the two through the hallway. As they passed, Paszek noticed a visible but thankfully thin stream of blood trailing behind the wounded soldier.

Paszek felt a strange sense of uneasiness as he continued down the corridor. Anxious for another bomb to potentially detonate, but with a perhaps-mostly-unfounded instinct that Savior wasn’t too keen on blowing him up. Not yet, at least.

More concerning, though, was that black charring had tainted the blinding white walls of Coalescence. This far away from the blast? It didn’t make sense. And it was just getting more and more pronounced as he kept walking. Then there was chipping of the paint and the silicone on the walls. Then…oh God…

Blood and debris caked the area the surrounding the doorway, which looked as if a wrecking ball covered in…already bloody spikes hit it? It didn’t make sense.

He gagged as he neared the blast zone.

It was weird. Everyone knew what blood smelled like, right? Every so often it would get into your nose or around your mouth, right?

It was unnerving by itself, but was incomparably so when, in fact, the only blood there was not your own.

For one of the only times in his life since he enlisted, Paszek felt incredibly scared to enter a room in which there was no present danger. Or maybe there was a danger – to his mental state, or something of the sort. But that really wasn’t the same, was it?

Was he allowed to be scared of this? Of something that already happened? Was it alright for him to not want to go in there?

Not to…not go in there…he knew that would be wrong. But to not want to? Even if he did it anyways?

As usual, he had to brush the thought off faster than he would have liked, as the aftermath of what remained in the blown-out stairwell was now far too close to turn back.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the clock ticking in the CDC building, Kane and Paszek both come face-to-face with some harsh truths.

What? No…he had to have been having some optic glitches. This didn’t make any sense. It wasn’t right.

How could it look like this? That wasn’t what explosions looked like. He had seen enough of them to know that. He expected strewn body parts and blood and sinew. And it was there. But not in this proportion and not in this magnitude and not in this…abundantly grisly presentation. Explosions caused localized damage and some mild gore. Some torn pieces and maybe a limb or two removed. Not this.

Carnage was too kind to describe it. The term “bloodbath” was often used a bit too lightly – but Paszek was fairly certain that the amount of blood present in the stairwell was enough to flood a king-size, and then some.

Were it not for the presence of scraps of clothing and the painful, posthumously ironic armor, it might have been difficult to tell exactly _what_ had been killed, and how many of them there actually were. There were human limbs and organs…but it looked less like men had been slaughtered mere minutes ago, and more like a mortician’s ice chest had been unceremoniously tossed from two stories up.

How many people were in there? 6? It seemed like so much more. Paszek was baffled as to how an explosion could deal out this much human devastation yet leave the wing of the building – and the entire building, at that, relatively intact.

Was it even an explosion? Charring and rubble would indicate that. But the remains? What could even cause that? Was it something he could figure out in the moment? Not really.

He turned away from the wreckage and walked slowly back in the direction he came from, being careful as to stick to the same path he took to get there. Soon he found himself back at the same intersection where he ran into the two remaining soldiers.

With little else to do, he sent out a call.

“You have a thing for running into collapsing buildings or something?!

“Call it an instinct.” Paszek didn’t miss a beat. “Two soldiers just came out, did you see them?”

“The wounded one is getting treated. I talked with the other one, but he didn’t say much. What’s the situation like in there?”

“I…I can’t even describe what it looked like in there, Kane. It’s…it’s bad. I…I don’t even know what-”

“Should...should we count that as one, then? One bomb down?”

“Well…well if the rest of the bombs are exactly like that one, then I…I’d say we just evacuate the building and wait it out, really.”

“What?”

“So…that last explosion hardly put a dent in the foundation of this place. It did some…some…well…some _severe_ damage to human life, but…nothing that could…you know?”

“That’s assuming that all of them are the same. We can’t…especially since we can’t even seem to track them.”

A new voice sprung up in the communications.

“Sorry to interrupt,” said Winslow. “But I’ve got news from the medical tent.”

“How did you get on this line?” replied Paszek.

“Well…umm…that’s a good question, but…but I think what I have is a bit more important, just ‘cause of how, you know…much time we have and-”

“Spit, it out Winslow!” barked Kane.

“The bomb squad member, the one with his legs all torn to pieces, that one? The stuff, the stuff in his legs, that made them all torn up, it’s all sorts of metal pieces. Ball bearings and screws and nails. Not the usual shrapnel.”

“That sounds…” Paszek started.

“…archaic.” Kane finished.

“Yeah, but, you know…it…well…it worked pretty well. We…we had no way of knowing where it was, and it…well…you know…” Winslow drifted off.

“She’s right.” said Paszek. “Whatever it was, it was…effective at taking human life. That…that’s what he wants, right?”

Kane shook her head. “No, no…he’s trying to make a point here. Killing soldiers won’t do that for him. There has to be something in particular he’s targeting. A certain virus or pathogen or chemical weapon.”

“Well…” said Winslow. “Maybe he’s targeting _all_ of them? The bio-hazard wing of the building, he could just be looking to blow that entire section. Maybe these little ones are, like…distractions or something? I…I don’t know…maybe…”

“Paszek, I think she might be on to something here.” said Kane.

“Yeah…it…it makes sense. If these bombs are low-tech…it doesn’t matter whether or not we can defuse them. Savior just has to stop us from getting to one…the one that really matters.” replied Paszek.

“Winslow, can you pull up all possible routes to the biohazard area?”

“Give me a second…okay…okay…got it. Okay, both of you should be seeing it now.”

Paszek studied the schematics that appeared on his HUD. Soon, a number of corridors on the map began being highlighted in bright green, likely Kane’s doing from her tablet.

“None of the entrances to the lab are near windows…” remarked Paszek.

“That’s on purpose.” said Kane. “They designed the building like that so that there was a lesser chance of decontamination.”

“So…does that mean we’ll have to keep going on in through the inside?” said Winslow.

“Not unless they’re willing to let us wreck the whole lab.” replied Paszek.

“I know they ain’t going to let you do that…” responded Winslow. “Looks like you’re going to have to go in the old-fashioned way.”

“How should I proceed? There’s likely still more explosives on the route there.” said Paszek.

“Working on it…” said Kane. “Judging by what we know now, he probably planted IEDs with plastic casings. Those are tough to track.”

“Do they give off heat signatures? Any kind of frequency?” replied Paszek.

Kane shook her head. “Nope. Speculation, but…they probably only respond to motion.”

“We could set them off remotely, then?” said Winslow.

“Not unless we had…” Kane trailed off. “Oh! Oh, we could do that! The grunts!”

“They have those here? In the CDC building?” said Paszek.

“It’s a mandate by Coalescence…every building they have an official residence in must have security. Specifically, _their_ security. There must be at least a handful of them somewhere.”

“Winslow?” she added.

“Yes…yeah, let me try to…okay…yeah, here. I just marked it. You both seeing this?”

Paszek’s eyes shot to the bottom of the two-dimensional grid displayed on his HUD. A flashing neon blue outlined a small portion of a room labeled “Protocol”.

“Is that down in the basement?” asked Paszek, somewhat confused by the way that the map was oriented.

“Looks like it.” responded Winslow. “Kane, can you tap into them remotely?”

“I just tried…and it’s looking like a no…” She let out a sigh. “I need a special access code to get in.”

“Would Dr. Berg know it?” queried Paszek.

“Doubt it. This isn’t his building…or his specialty. We already evacuated all the staff…anyone who would have the code is out of the immediate area. Assuming we even know who they are…”

“You sure there’s no way you can break into their system?” he asked.

“No.” Kane paused. “But…”

“But what?”

She exhaled. “No, no…you…we can’t do that.”

“Kane, what are you talking about?!”

“You…might be able to…to remotely take control of the grunts with your DNI.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“I agree!” she exclaimed. “Even if we ignore the fact that the DNI isn’t really designed to take over processors that complicated…I’m not going to let you take that plunge in the state that you’re in. Especially seeing how the last few people we saw turned out…”

“I hate to interrupt y’all…” said Winslow. “But we are running dangerously close on time here. We need to find a way to get into the biohazard lab, like, yesterday.”

“There’s no other way we can draw out the explosives?” asked Paszek.

“There might be, but we won’t know until we try…and we don’t have any time to try! We…we just need to _do_!” responded Winslow. “We…we’re even wasting too much time right now! 2 minutes! We wasted 2 minutes just talking here!”

“Cool it!” shouted Kane. “Paszek, tell the rest of the units to re-adjust their course to head towards the third-floor main corridor. And tell them to tread carefully.”

“Look where ‘carefully’ got them before! We can’t risk more lives!”

“What else is there to do?!”

No one spoke for a full three seconds, but Paszek could hear one of the others stutter their breath.

“Don’t…you…you’re not going down there!” said Kane. “I…I mean it! You’re not going near those grunts! I…I…that’s an order! I’m _ordering_ you to exit the facility immediately!”

“No! No! I’m not going to tell these soldiers to walk into an explosion! This is the only way!”

“You don’t know what will happen! You don’t know what you’re risking!”

“I know _exactly_ what I’m risking! That’s why I’m doing it!”

“This…you…no! No, you’re not doing it! Do not go down there!”

Paszek let out an audible sigh as he shut off his communications for perhaps the dozenth time that day.

* * *

 

You fucking idiot. You absolute fucking idiot, Paszek.

He was just trying to get himself killed. Or piss her off. Probably both.

“Make sure they don’t move a muscle!” she shouted into her comms. She disconnected immediately after but kept them open to calls from both Winslow. And Paszek…just in case…

Kane quickly sheathed her tablet and started making headway towards the closest entrance, which naturally was the same one that Paszek had used just minutes ago.

As she ran through the doors of the CDC building, she experienced a brief moment of worry that, at any given instant, an explosive device could be set off and turn her into mincemeat. This soon subsided upon her realization that Paszek, who surely would’ve been moving at a much faster pace than her, had yet to encounter one himself. Kane just needed to follow the same path that he did.

She was less assured, however, of what exactly her plan was, going forward. What the hell was she going to say when she caught up to Paszek? Assuming she even could, of course. The past few days had just been a spiral of more and more chaotic decisions by him – how would her being there help any more than it had before? Was there anything she could say that would actually reach him? The only thing that even kind of worked was scolding him, and she didn’t feel too confident in the long-term effects of doing that.

And even if Kane could convince Paszek not to use the grunts, where would they go from there? Paszek was right – she couldn’t throw the bomb squad under the bus. They needed a way to enter the lab without setting off the other devices…or at least not by stepping on them. Was that even possible? Was it even possible to come up with and execute a plan like that in…what? 18 minutes?

It was times like this that she fucking loathed that mindset she used to have about her job. That it was exciting. That her enjoyment of her own fucking life came from the rush. From the thrill of it all. What was she thinking? How could she be so ignorant? So naïve? She should’ve learned her lesson long ago. Long before Zurich. Long before Paszek. Long before Taylor.

Why did she forget about that safehouse in fucking Singapore so quickly? How long did it take her to forget the pain she went through? A day? They had taught her how to repress things. Did she want to forget it? Did she somehow think it would make things easier?

And this all somehow was happening, even though she was running through the halls of a place she’d never been to, presumably surrounded by a fucking megaton bomb, and…oh God. Oh God, no. The bomb goes off and there’s flames. There’s flames everywhere. And it’s crackling the skin on her fingers. And that Immortal bitch just stuck that knife in her gut. And the chair’s tipping over. And her eyes. Why did her eyes burn, again? It must be the light. Goh Xiulan is screaming in her ear. It’s gibberish or a foreign language or something. Or maybe it’s English, and she just can’t hear it. She’s…oh no…she’s crying now. No, what are you doing!? That won’t help! Stop it! Stop! This isn’t what you were taught! They’re going to know you’re weak! But you’re not, right? Maybe you are! No! No! Stop it! Either keep holding out or just let yourself die! You can’t do both! Stop lingering in-between! They’re not coming back for you!

Kane snapped out of it. Kind of. But she still kept on running. She never stopped. She didn’t want to. She needed to find him. Stop the bombs. But, at the same time, she wanted to freeze in her tracks and find the smallest space she could find. Just to sit. To be nowhere.

Why is this happening now? Why did it have to bubble up now? What did she do wrong?

She felt just like Paszek. At least, that’s what she thought. That’s what she had gathered from everything he has said to her. At war with yourself. Wondering every second why you just couldn’t think the things you wanted to. Focus on the things you wanted to.

Kane had to rub her eyes with her palms to notice that she was about to run into a broom closet.

* * *

 

He didn’t forget.

Paszek hardly forgot anything – the DNI made sure of that. But it did an especially good job of forcing him to remember his pitiful last moments as a man unalerted by machine.

The basement security room was clearly added for legal purposes. There was nothing in there save for a seemingly arbitrary chair and table at the front. And dust, as well. Plenty of dust. No one had set foot in here for some time. Or maybe ever.

Well, there was something else in the room. The half dozen grunts. They sat on both sides of the room, three by three, staring right into the sockets of their counterparts opposite to them.

Yeah, now the memories were there. That crunching sound they would make as their burst out of their resting places. The horrible and careless efficiency that their cold strength provided.  Those eyes – those beaming, piercing, soulless fucking eyes. They would always glow with blue or red or yellow, but color was hardly a factor in how downright terrifying they were to Paszek.

As he took a few more steps towards the first grunt on his left, he realized that he wasn’t actually sure of how exactly to do this. After all, the DNI was never intended to do this. It was never supposed to allow control of bots this complicated. Bots this smart.

Was he supposed to just…interface with it like anything else? That’s what he assumed the others had done, but he had never seen it in person.

He hovered his hand over the small glowing blue screen that stood on the pod.

A cranking sound.

He jerked away. He slowly brought his hand back to the same position, quickly pulling away again out of instinct – no sound this time.

Did he just imagine it? Did it come from somewhere else? Someone else? Whatever. It didn’t matter. He had to do this.

As he closed his eyes – or rather, his eyes were closed by the mechanics of the interface – he heard that familiar sound, that strange warped…beeping? He never could put his finger on just what it was. It sounded a bit like someone was typing…but…pitched? Pitched very low. Changing.

Sometimes, he could see things, too, while it happened. He could trace his way through the wires. The circuits. At least, that’s how the others had always described it. Maybe it was something weirder. He had fiddled with it too much a while back, eventually Maretti had told him to give up on it.

“ _It’s like a big-ass corn maze, but there’s no hints, no prize, and no exit. Drives you crazy just the same, though._ ”

Perhaps that was what had always distanced him from the others on the squad. By that point in their careers, Taylor, Hall, Diaz, Maretti…they were all willing to stare at the corn maze from the entrance and not dash in. They already knew they couldn’t find their way. But Paszek, and Hendricks, for that matter, either hadn’t learned this or didn’t care. They would gladly rush into whatever spider’s web stood in front of them without a moment’s hesitation. It’s not like either of their methods had proven to be better than the others. Most of them were dead, after all.

With no warning to come from it, Paszek had no time to mentally react to that godforsaken fucking sound before the steel hands gripped his shoulders and spun him around.

The sound of his own hyperventilating was deafening as the faced the grunt, whose hold on his body felt overpowering beyond measure. Then there was the pressure. The sharp and scolding pressure that he had felt in his shoulders more times than any human should. He didn’t feel as desperate or as scared or as he had imagined he would be. Just angry. Fucking furious that he could do something this stupid. Why the fuck did he think he was capable of this? Capable of conquering this stupid fucking DNI trigger bullshit? Now he was going to get blown up in a few minutes. This was perfect. This was definitely the way he had planned on dying. Not by getting shot in the back halfway across the world, but by getting crushed by rubble from the _soon-to-be-exploded building that he voluntarily chose to enter and start an impossible task within_. Great job, you absolute fucking moron.

To Paszek’s surprise, though, the pressure began to let up. Soon it was gone. The grunt’s left arm was pulled back…but by what? Paszek couldn’t see. It was too dark. Then the right arm. It was pinned. With an all-too-satisfying thwack, its head was bashed in from the top, leaving blue sparks to sputter out onto the floor. And the culprit…

“ _Don’t worry, Captain. It’s all in your head._ ”

The black and pixelated form of Corvus stood in front of him. Paszek couldn’t find any words to offer the artificial intelligence, only dumbfoundedly staring as he slumped to the ground.

Snow. The floor was the ground was the snow. But the rest of the room remained the same. The basement of the CDC building was still here. No grunts. A couple lights were still on. The door was snowed in.

As Corvus removed his grasp the grunt’s crushed head, it dissolved into dust as it fell, being completed materialized before it could be make a dent in the snow. Corvus then extended the same hand outward, offering it to help Paszek up from the ground.

Paszek silently accepted it, and he was momentarily shocked at just how firm Corvus’ hand was – virtually indistinguishable from a human’s. As he was being pulled up, Corvus stretched out a bit more, and Paszek realized that his texture wasn’t confined to his palms. His forearm and his wrist felt the same. Paszek was left to assume that the rest of Corvus had to be this way, despite the fact that he looked less like a solid object and more like a collective series of particles, all attempting to shape themselves into a body, their volatile nature be damned.

And now the room was gone, and as Paszek should’ve expected, the Frozen Forest took its place.

“ _It’s easy to forget it in the moment, I imagine. These robots…they are not malevolent on their own. They require a malevolent master for that._ ”

Again, Paszek didn’t respond.

“ _I hope I didn’t startle you. You know why we’re here, right?_ ”

“Well…” he trailed off. “I have an idea….”

“ _In times of crisis, people often retreat back into their own minds. For someone with a DNI…it might end up looking like this._ ”

Paszek started to feel short of breath. “Time…how much…how much time is left?”

“ _In all honesty, I’m unsure of how time passes while you are here. I’d hesitate to assume anything. With that in mind, I suggest we try to work through this as quickly as we can._ ”

“Work through? What…what do you mean?” he continued to wheeze after he spoke.

“ _You are currently experiencing something of a traumatic episode. The presence of the grunts has released numerous brain chemicals – chemicals that have effectively paralyzed your body and caused you to hallucinate._ ”

“Not…the first time this has happened…”

“ _But there’s something more to it. You are in the process of trying to take control of the grunts. Put simply, your DNI doesn’t want you to do that, especially since the rest of your brain is fighting it, too._ ”

“You still…haven’t explained…what I need to do.”

“ _If you want to stop this from happening in the future…and if you want to be able to take control of these grunts properly…you’re going to need to confront this. Confront this trauma from the inside._ ”

“What…are…what are you talking about?”

“ _Paszek…if it’s alright that I refer to you as such…I have seen and learned enough to know that this is the only way._ _You can’t continue to ignore it. It has been eating away at you._ _I can see it. I can see that it’s hurting you. I don’t want you to be in pain any longer._ ”

“Don’t…you…you don’t have to pretend…that you care…I know…what you are…”

“ _You know what I have done. You know how I came to be born. But, Paszek, at the risk of sounding harsh, I must say – you do not know **who** I am._ ”

“…No time…no time for this. Need to…get back…”

“ _What you need to do is listen to me! I’m trying to help you! I want to help you! How…how will we ever save Sarah if you don’t get past this? How? We won’t. We can’t. You must do this if we want to free her!_ ”

“Fine….” Paszek exhaled. He could feel his pulse steady.

“ _Let’s start from the beginning_. _Can you take us there?_ ”

“Beginning of what?”

“ _Of your fears._ ”

“Like you don’t know where that is already…”

“ _I don’t. I have never looked into your mind – into your memories. I told you that I wouldn’t…that I would never do that._ ”

Paszek could hardly formulate a thought, let alone a response, to what Corvus said.

Suddenly, the Frozen Forest found itself dissolving, with the snowy turf soon replaced by off-grey concrete. In the distance, a tarmac. Helicopters. Drones and soldiers running around. The tranquil landscape was now filled with sirens and klaxons and the whirring of the engines.

“ _Tell me where this is._ ”

“Ethiopia, an NRC prison. 2065.”

“ _What were you doing here?_ ”

“Hostage rescue. My first black op. Hendricks was in charge. We freed a minister, Khalil, a few others…”

Behind the pair, a helicopter took off. From the edge of the cabin sat Hendricks, desperately reaching his arms out to pull a man up. It was a futile effort.

“ _You got left behind?_ ”

“It wasn’t his fault. Hendricks always apologized for it. But there was nothing he could have done. I think…I think it always weighed on him. That he thought he…that he’s the reason I ended up like this.”

The two watched as Paszek – the vision of Paszek, at least – stumbled to the ground as a grunt pushed him down with great force.

Just as the grunt brought down its first strike, the world seemed to stop, as if someone had paused it.

“I don’t …I don’t think either of us needs to see the rest.”

“ _How badly were you hurt?_ ”

“…Bad.”

“ _Can you…can you elaborate a little more?_ ”

Paszek, not even making eye contact with Corvus, rapidly shook his head, averting his gaze as far down as he could.

“…No…no, no…no. You…I…I don’t think…I don’t think you get it, I just…”

“ _It’s not easy to say out loud._ ”

Paszek looked up.

“ _Am I correct?_ ”

“How do you think I got this way? These arms and legs?”

“ _DNI patients chose to have their limbs replaced…_ ”

“Well…well…I didn’t! I didn’t get that choice!”

“ _You lost your limbs in this…incident?_ ”

Paszek half-nodded.

“ _It’s a wonder you survived. I would expect that you had fallen unconscious due to shock._ ”

Again, a half-nod.

“ _If so…they how did you escape? What stopped the grunt?_ ”

In an instant, the world around them moved at lightspeed, but after a short moment, returned to normal.

In front of the two, Paszek lied on the ground, bleeding profusely from three stumps, with only his left leg still intact. The grunt continued to strike Paszek, but, seemingly out of nowhere, was struck by a flurry of bullets, soon collapsing to the side afterwards.

From behind the grunt emerged Taylor, who soon moved over to cradle Paszek’s head as he continued to cry out in pain.

And then, as quickly as it did before, the world stopped.

“ _John Taylor. How did he save your life? You were very badly injured._ ”

“He…he got me out of there. Straight to Coalescence. By the time I woke up…they were already prepping me for surgery.”

“ _The DNI surgery?_ ”

“Yeah.”

 “ _Do you resent Taylor for doing that? For getting you the surgery?_ ”

Paszek exhaled. “No. Not, really, at least…” He paused. “There are times…times where I wish he hadn’t…but it wasn’t his fault. He saved me. I can’t…I couldn’t hate him for that.”

“ _So…if it is not regret that drives this fear…then what does?_ ” 

Corvus took a small step towards Paszek.

“ _When you think about this incident, how do you feel?_ ”

Paszek opened his mouth to speak, but hesitated.

“Powerless.”

* * *

 

Kane didn’t know what exactly she expected to see when she entered the basement.

But it wasn’t that.

It wasn’t Paszek standing there, right arm outstretched in front of a grunt, still as a statue. It wasn’t a Paszek that wouldn’t respond to her speaking to him. And it certainly wasn’t a Paszek that didn’t seem to have a sense of sight or sound or touch. What was happening? He was blinking. His eyes would blink every twenty seconds or so.

She checked her watch. 15 minutes. 15 minutes to disarm the bombs. And they didn’t know how. And they didn’t know where. And she didn’t know…she didn’t know where Paszek’s head was.

“A part of me still wanted to believe that you wouldn’t do this. That you wouldn’t try this.”

Sometimes Kane would talk to herself. Not often. Usually when she was driving. Just to remind herself that she was rational. At least, that she _could_ be rational.

“I guess that was pretty dumb, right? I know you. You are always willing to get yourself hurt to save people. And you don’t order people into harm’s way, do you? Not like I do. Not like the things I’ve done.”

She briefly closed her eyes and shuddered.

“I hope it doesn’t keep you up at night. I really hope it doesn’t. I still don’t know why you do it for me. Why you came back for me in Singapore. I lied to you. And to Hendricks. I never gave him a fair shot, you know…”

Kane took a few steps closer to Paszek, now within arm’s length.

“I just want to know what you saw in me. What you saw in this…dumb, selfish…battered CIA agent who didn’t cough up the truth until she thought you were going to die…”

She shook her head.

“I don’t get it. I don’t get why you do this. Why you…risk yourself for me. Do you know how important you are?! You’re the only competent cyber-soldier left in the whole fucking world! What would have happened if you died in Singapore, like I thought you would?! The whole world would be screwed, that’s what! And you risked that for me!? I’m not worth that! I’m not!”

She quickly paced around to stand just adjacent to him, so that she could look at his eyes.

“And what happens if you die here?! If you can’t do this, or if your brain gets fried like Diaz’s?! I lose you! I lose you, that’s what happens!”

She wrapped both hands around his left forearm.

“Don’t you get it?! Don’t you know why I keep getting so pissed off at you? Worried about you? Why I can’t stand it when you’re going crazy and running into danger like this?!”

She brought her forehead to meet her clasped hands.

“I love you, Igg! I love you more than I can stand it! It pisses me off just how much I care about you! Because I want you to be better…and to be safe! But you won’t have it! Because…that’s just who you are! You’re the guy who does anything to protect me and to protect good, honest people! And I love that about you, and I hate it too because it worries me sick! But mostly…I love it.”

Kane slowly retracted her face and hands, now back in a fully upright position to get a proper look at Paszek.

“Come on…can you please…please come back soon. I….I….”

She couldn’t finish. In her most vulnerable moment, her most self-intimate moment – when she needed herself to dig deeper more than any other time in her life – she couldn’t do it.

Old habits die hard. Dying, sometimes, can be much easier.

* * *

 

“ _Powerless_?”

“I couldn’t even put a dent in that fucking thing! It caught me…and that was it.”

“ _You said that you don’t blame Taylor or Hendricks for what happened._ ”

“Yeah, I said that…what do you…what do you mean by it?”

“ _Are you looking for something…or someone…to place the blame on?_ ”

“What?”

“ _It’s common for people to try to rationalize the thing that happen to them. To place it properly within a greater context._ ”

Corvus paused.

“ _Do you believe in a higher power?_ ”

“…No.”

“ _So, then…do you believe that things happen for a reason?_ ”

Paszek let out half of a chuckle.

“Nothing ever seems to.”

“ _Then, why do you think this incident happened? What could have allowed this to terrible thing to happen to you?_ ”

Paszek turned towards Corvus.

“What are you…what are you getting at, already? What do you want me to say!?”

“ _You felt powerless…but how did you get there? You said that it wasn’t Hendricks or Taylor’s fault…then whose was it?_ ”

“It was no one’s! No one else could have done anything!”

“ _No one **else**?_ ”

“Oh, fuck you, man!”

“ _Is that what you think? Do you think it was your fault?_ ”

“No! …Maybe! I don’t know!”

“ _You felt inadequate as a soldier, and by extension, inadequate as a person. So you carried that with you, everywhere you went. The DNI, it fixed you as a soldier. It made you faster. Stronger. Smarter. But it didn’t fix you as a human being. You felt like you were becoming less human by the minute. And the grunts. Every time you saw the grunts, you were terrified by the trauma you endured. And every time it happened, these feelings of inadequacy would come back, stronger each time._ _The grunts are constant reminders that you, by your own assessment…are weak._ ”

“You…you…”

Paszek turned away from Corvus and started walking in the opposite direction, his step pattern faltering in much the same way that his emotional state was. Soon, the Tunisian prison tarmac drifted off into memory, the Frozen Forest dominated the subconscious once again.

“ _Paszek, I am only…_ ”

Corvus stopped himself from speaking as he noticed the way Paszek was walking. Waiting a few moments until Paszek stopped and sat on the ground, he materialized right beside him.

“I…I don’t get it. How…how…”

“ _It’s all about perspective. Every mind, every person…is unique. They view themselves and the rest of the world is a way that is…individual to them._ ”

Corvus sat down next to Paszek in the snow.

“ _I’m the product of over sixty different people. That is sixty different lives. Sixty different sets of experiences. Perspectives are unique, yes…but I’ve learned that they can also be similar. Many philosophers and artisans discuss the ‘human experience.’ Perhaps it doesn’t exist. But there are feelings…feelings that all of them had. Guilt. Regret. Anxiety. Every one of them felt them._ ”

He paused.

“ _You might see this vulnerability…this weakness…as something that makes you less human. But it’s not. To be human is to have weaknesses. To be fragile. It is in their nature._ ”

“I thought…I thought that getting this…getting this thing, the DNI…I thought it would fix me, make me better. I didn’t want to be human anymore…I just wanted to be…”

“ _What? What did you want to be?_ ”

“I…I don’t know.”

* * *

 

Kane soon found herself able to wind down from her angered, impassioned state, and moved on the next order of business.

She couldn’t let Paszek stay here.

If he wasn’t going to wake up within the next minute or so, then she would have to move him – there was no telling how destructive the remaining bombs would be, but she knew that it would be foolish to think that the basement would be spared.

She gave his torso an experimental push. Paszek stumbled a bit, not in the way that an unconscious person would, and soon his body corrected itself back to its original position.

Where was he? Where was his mind? Kane’s initial fear had been that his brain had been overloaded by the interface, but that clearly wasn’t the case. He could move. His body – and therefore his brain, was still active.

But how would she wake him up? Could he hear her? After some of the things she’d let out earlier, she’d almost rather that he couldn’t. Almost, of course. Because waking him up was the only chance there was of Paszek escaping the blast.

“Paszek, can I tell you something?”

He remained expressionless and pale.

“It probably sounds weird coming from someone like me, but…you know what? Those two months we had together in DC? Those were great. Every second of it. I thought…I thought it would be boring or unfulfilling, or…I don’t know. But I…I really did like it.”

Kane really, really wanted to think that she saw his right eye twitch, but she knew that it probably didn’t.

“Well…maybe it was a little boring. But that was okay, you know? It was nice to just be there with you. And if you don’t get out of here…well, we won’t be able to do that again. To have that time again.”

Still no change.

“This guy…Savior…he’s still out there! If you don’t make it, who’s going to stop him? You think the rest of the CIA can handle this? They’ve been running in place for months! This is on us! We have a responsibility to bring him down!”

The ticking clock and Paszek’s unconscious indifference was making Kane dangerously anxious.

Fuck no. Not this again. Not this bullshit. It hadn’t even been 10 minutes!

Seeing red. Red. Not ruby red. Blinding red-orange. Like someone had thrown blood into the fire and it made a splash. It was stupid. Fantasy. But it happened. It happened to her and she saw it and she felt it and she was there and she saw it and she saw it and she saw it and she felt it.

Why did she let this happen? Why did she just sit there and wait for them to take her? Some of the others ran, and they all got captured…but she could’ve made it. She was smart.

And then it’s her abdomen that Goh Xiulan brutalized with the fire poker. It almost made the pain in her knees and her shoulder and her neck and her hands go away. But it never stopped the burning sensation in her eyes. That would never go away. Closed, open, blinking – it hardly made a difference.

You fucking idiot! You did this to yourself! You were the one that lied to them! You left them in the dark! This is what you deserve! For everything! For everything you did!

Everything.

* * *

 

“…Are you hearing that, too?”

Corvus did a double-take. “ _What are you referring to?_ ”

Paszek didn’t respond, instead standing up and pivoting around in an attempt to locate the source of the unknown noise.

“Don’t tell me…that you’re not…”

He craned his head further as he cut off his own thought. It was someone…talking? No, that wasn’t right. But it sounded like it. Like someone was talking.

Paszek knew that he must have heard that voice somewhere before.

He couldn’t tell what they were saying. It was garbled – scrambled. But still pitched. It was high. Not too high. Not shrill.

He hadn’t just heard it before…it was familiar.

No…no…

It was her. It was Rachel.

No no no no no no no no no no. This was bad. This was really bad.

He had never heard her like this before. Not ever. She wasn’t…she didn’t…do this. She wasn’t the person who went through things like this.

She wasn’t the one who sobbed over her muffled words. That wasn’t her.

What happened? What could have possibly happened that made her end up like this?

Did he do this? Did he do this to her? Had all of the stupid shit he’d done finally caught up? Did she finally decide, once and for all, that this asshole just isn’t worth worrying about anymore?

“ _Paszek?_ ” Corvus meekly chimed in.

He gained no response from his query.

“ _Is…is something else wrong?_ ”

Paszek continued to walk forward, and the snow-capped trees of the Frozen Forest slowly decayed into…nothing. A black void, that for some reason, still had light – one could see exactly what was there, and absolutely nothing else.

He sat on the invisible floor beneath him. It felt like smooth tile.

“She…she…I don’t…”

“ _Officer Kane_?”

Paszek let out a defeated breath.

“I can hear her…she’s…she’s hurting, and…and I don’t know why! I don’t know why…and I need to help her!”

“ _Do you feel a responsibility to help her? To…protect her?_ ”

Paszek scoffed. “Of course I do!”

“ _Because you love her?_ ”

“Yes! Well…no, I mean…yes, I love her, but no, that’s not the reason why.”

He paused.

“She has…always been there for me. I’m always…the broken one. I need fixing. I need someone to tell me that everything’s okay. She…she does that for me. But I…I never do it for her! I have to…I have to protect her because…that’s what she does for me! And for nothing! She does it for no reason other than that she wants to! I’ve never…I’ve never been there for her! It’s not fair! It’s not fair that I don’t do that! I wanted to believe that she was so strong that she never needed it! Why?! Why did I think that!”

Paszek turned to Corvus, red flushing his face and eyes.

“You! Tell me, with your ultimate fucking wisdom, tell me why I’m such a fucking idiot! Tell me why I can’t protect the people…the…the person that I care about most!”

“ _This is it. This is the thing that drives you, yes? You still feel inadequate. It transcends your career – your combat skills – and enters your personal life._ ”

“You’re a fucking robot, not a psychiatrist! Don’t bullshit me!”

“ _The last time you lashed out at me was when I told you a harsh truth. Would I be right in saying the same has happened here?_ ”

Paszek turned back around.

“ _I hope you can still understand that I only do this to help you._ ”

As much as it pained Paszek to admit to himself, Corvus was right. Corvus couldn’t possibly again anything from this, he couldn’t have any ulterior motives to doing this. For talking to him like this.

 _He_. It still sounded strange to use the word like that. To call Corvus…this unfathomably long series of ones and zeroes…a man. A living thing. Not an object. Not a program.

“ _There isn’t an easy answer to this. Officer Kane is a truly remarkable woman, from all accounts I’ve received from Sarah._ _You should know that I hold you in high regards as well. But neither of you are indestructible. No one is._ ”

Corvus took a step forward.

“ _You’re trying to take over these grunts…but don’t forget that you’re just as fragile as everyone else, physically. You are strong…but you are still human. Don’t forget that. Never let it slip your mind that you are human and you are in control of you…and absolutely nothing else. Do that…and the grunts will never take you._ ”

“…Did…did Diaz forget? Is that why he went insane?”

“ _Perhaps it was, but…truthfully…I never want to go back and find out._ ”

Paszek couldn’t blame him.

“ _I think it’s about time you woke up, don’t you?_ ”

* * *

 

The cycle of irrational anger and silent worry had already taken quite a toll on Kane, even though it had only been happening for the last ten minutes or so.

Her continued attempts to move Paszek had been equally unsuccessful as her first – he effectively reversed every inch of forward progress she made, albeit unconsciously. At one point, she used her knife to lightly prick him in the neck. Still no dice, but a little bit of blood. A sign of life, she supposed.

A dim mechanical noise turned Kane’s attention to the grunt. Kane’s own eyes flickered as she saw the grunt’s do the same, starting with a dull white hue, and within a few seconds they had settled on a light blue.

“Hey! Paszek! Are you…are you seeing this?! Hey!”

She gave him another light shove on the shoulder, which, like before, made his body somewhat stumble. But it was different. Instead of his legs correcting themselves and retaining his balance, he started to tip over, his eyes darting open on the way down.

In an instant, Paszek stood up and hot his head around, where Kane stood next to the now-active grunt.

“Oh my God! Thought I lost you there for a while!” Kane was half-chuckling out of pure shock, despite the still-dire situation they were in.

“Are you alright?” Paszek hurriedly asked.

“Am _I_ alright? I should be asking you that! You were unconscious for at least ten minutes there.”

“I think I’m good now…”

Kane took another glance at the grunt.

“Is that…are you controlling that? Its eyes are blue. That…usually means it’s on our side.”

She flinched as the grunt took a step off of its platform and onto the basement floor next to her.

“Yeah, yeah…I think I’ve got it. I’m going to take it upstairs, you should be able to get a view of it.”

Kane whipped out her tablet and punched in a few codes, and after a second of buffering found herself looking from the perspective of the grunt, which, at the time, was staring right at her face.

“Make it quick! We’ve got…9 minutes left here.”

The grunt turned square around, started in a slow jog and soon burst into a sprint as it made its way across the basement and through the door that Kane had left open.

As the robot continued its mad dash throughout the building, Kane found herself glancing every few seconds or so at Paszek, who had his eyes closed and right arm outstretched. She was in utter disbelief. This wasn’t supposed to be possible. At least, not with the level of cognizance he seemed to be displaying.

She wished that she could just stop worrying about this kind of shit, especially in the heat of situations like this. But she just couldn’t. It wasn’t in her nature to just…stop thinking about things. To shut that part off.

Her eyes – and thoughts – quickly shifted back to the screen, where the grunt controlled by Paszek was barreling itself down the halls of the building, swerving into adjacent corridors with no apparent hesitation.

Before long, the grunt had climbed three sets of stairs, and was just a doorway removed from the second-highest level of the facility.

A doorway removed, of course, when it was blown to hell by an explosion.

Her display had no sound. She could still cold faintly hear it through the walls. But the suddenness of it still made her flinch. Kane looked back at Paszek, whose reaction to the blast was delayed for a second.

He violently shook his head back and forth as he snapped back into consciousness.

“Fuck! There was a charge up there!”

“I know, I just felt it down here!”

Paszek turned around in the cramped room and approached another docked grunt.

“Two bombs down, right?” he asked as he raised his hand upwards.

“Yes, but…” Kane hesitated. “I don’t know if we can assume that he told us the truth…about how many a-are left, that is.”

“I wish we had the privilege to speculate about that now, but…”

Kane silently cursed herself and pressed a finger to ear. She had no urge to see Paszek undergo the control process once more.

“Winslow, did you guys hear that explosion out there?”

A short notable beat of radio silence.

“You’re still there!?” exclaimed the younger woman. “I was worried sick after you ran in there!”

“Did you hear the explosion?!”

“No, no! Well, we _saw_ it, but we didn’t…well, you see, we didn’t hear it, because…you know…”

“Because why?!”

“Command told us to clear back. 500 yards is as close as I can get right now without breaking orders. They’re prepared to setup quarantine is there’s a larger blast.”

“What about bomb squad?”

“Yeah, well, I asked about that, and they said they wouldn’t send in another team. You know, because, because of the causalities, and…”

Another beat, this time courtesy of Kane.

“Kane, you have to get outta there. I know you’ve got a job to do and that you want to stop this, but…but maybe it’s too late. Maybe…maybe we just have to let this thing go off, and…and see how we can fix it afterwards.”

Winslow exhaled.

“But this isn’t worth dying for! Just grab Captain Paszek and hoof it over here!”

Another pause.

“Please.”

“Winslow, keep the hazmats at bay. Call forensics and get them over here to sweep the place once we’re done.”

“But what if-”

“We’ll get it done, okay?”

“I…fine. G-good luck…”

The fact that Winslow, just like Paszek too many times today, had chosen to disconnect from the line made Kane’s own confidence drop from just below average to a step above rock bottom.

Was this really it? This wasn’t the way she was supposed to die. She was supposed to get caught off guard in Iran, or have her car wrecked by a semi, or contract heart disease, or…something! Something else! She wasn’t supposed to be at ground zero of a terrorist attack.

No one was supposed to die like that.

As the grunt whizzed its way out of the basement and up the staircase, Kane once again glued her eyes to the tablet screen, anxiously soaking up the increasingly faint sounds of the grunt’s footsteps.

Paszek took the robot along the exact same path as earlier, even passing by the caved-in, grimy husk of the last grunt, along with the expected blackened rubble from the explosion.

After surpassing the route of the previous run, Paszek slowed the grunt to a leisurely walking pace, carefully scanning each side of the corridor for signs of another explosive device. After the right turn out of the stairwell, the hallway extended about a hundred feet; halfway through was when it split out to the left, with a sign reading “BIOHAZARD”, decorated with the usual symbol, pointing in the same direction.

If she wasn’t so tense herself, Kane likely would have chastised Paszek for traversing through the corridor so slowly, given how tight they were on time. But she understood his apprehension. There was no way to know if each step would be the one to set off a deafening blast, or two, or even three, if Savior was a particularly slimy figure.

It was only natural then, that Kane nearly jumped out of her skin when the explosion shook the table her leg was resting against, and when it caused two layers of dust to fall off the ceiling, and when it left a faint ringing sound in her left ear that just wouldn’t go away for the rest of the day.

“Shit!” she involuntarily exclaimed. She peered over to notice Paszek shaking and clutching his head.

“You alright?”

“Just…surprised me, is all…” he replied. “How are we on time?”

“Shade under 7 minutes.”

“Shit…” he trailed off. “Enough time for another sweep? Or should we just…go?”

Kane couldn’t give him an answer she had any amount of confidence in. It just wasn’t going to happen.

“You think Savior told the truth?”

“I don’t think he’s lied to me yet.”

“Except that he has!” she retaliated. “Back in Ethiopia, he told you that BS…about me being dead! That wasn’t true!”

Paszek clutched his head. Kane could tell he was processing the realization that he wasn’t right.

“He’s messing with me. If I go upstairs…get blown up and die…what does he gain? The game is over. Savior wouldn’t be obsessing with me if he just wanted to kill me. Not like this, at least.”

“So…what? He wants us to find the bomb? He wants us to defuse it?”

“I don’t know…maybe?”

Kane couldn’t tell if Paszek was actually thinking it through any further, but she herself had, beginning earlier in the day, asked the same question in her head over and over.

What was the point of the game? Of the time limit? Why even tell the public at all? Given what she knew, Savior could have blown the CDC and Coalescence sky high whenever he felt like it.

Before Kane could express her concerns further, Paszek chimed in himself.

“It’s your call.”

Kane exhaled heavily.

“Let’s go up. Follow the same path as the bot. But _I_ go first.”

Not wanting to give Paszek a chance to revoke the proverbial torch, Kane walked past him and through the open door that led out of the basement.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you have enjoyed this story. Please read as much as you'd like, and I greatly appreciate feedback, if you have any to give.
> 
> Thank you!


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